Of Blood and Cherry Blossoms
by OfPaintAndOil
Summary: Sakura wakes up in a cage with a bloody dress and no shoes, about to be sacrificed with a vampire as old as dirt. The witches are also really irritating and she doesn't understand Grecian, but it's the heated gaze of the ancient vampire that creeps her out and makes the part of her made of teeth and nails want to come out and play. Now if only he'd leave her alone. COMPLETE.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing relating to _Naruto_.

* * *

Sakura woke up in a cage.

" _Seriously?_ " she muttered, rubbing her head where she'd banged it on the metal bars above her. "You've _got_ to be kidding me."

She shouldn't have been surprised, all things considered. The witches had been way too active lately. Annoyingly so.

And witches hated vampires.

Sakura looked down at her once pretty pink dress to see the dried pattern of blood and gore covering it. Her shoes—once nice black kitten heels that she rocked, thank you very much—were missing, her feet bare and covered in dirt. This, more than anything else, was what really pissed her off.

She _liked_ those shoes.

It was dark, and damp. She was in a cave of some sort, with a salt circle set up with candles dripping wax on the floor.

She smelt salt water, and wondered if she was still in Greece. The sharp pain in her throat told her that she'd been there for at least a couple days, and Sakura licked her teeth, finding no remains of her last meal.

A soft scuff of boot on ground had Sakura spinning around in her cage, only to blink in confusion.

There was another overly small cage in the cave with her. It was a bit larger than Sakura's, but larger in the way someone would shop for a cage for a very large dog. Sakura was in a cage meant for only a medium-large sized dog.

She was slightly offended at this unfairness.

The man in the cage opposite hers was obviously a vampire, if the red lining his pupils was anything to go by, and he'd been starved for much longer than Sakura had.

"Hello," he said, good-naturedly.

"Hello," Sakura said, glad when her throat didn't betray her and her voice came out clear. "I don't suppose you know where we are? Or why we're here?"

"It would appear our kidnappers are some very foolish witches who thought a vampire sacrifice would be the way to appease their ancestors in some way or another." He waved a hand lazily in the air, like said annoying ancestors were floating around above them. "There were some more details in there somewhere, but I stopped listening after a while. One can only take so much witchling bitching."

Sakura let out a surprised laugh.

One side of the vampire's mouth curled up. Sakura noticed then that he was dressed in a rolled up white button-down and slacks. His feet, however, were not bare like hers. Sakura felt that some injustice was done to her, even more so.

He was obviously older than her, by a lot. The power was radiating off of him, even from over there. And that was without his annoyance being directed at her.

The only lighting in the cave came from the candles, telling Sakura that it was either currently night outside or they were far enough inside the cave that no light would reach them. Even so, the vampire's hair was lit up by the flames, bright red and making Sakura wonder if he dyed it that color or if he'd gotten so much blood in it before that it was now permanently stained that way—

"So, sweetheart, we seem to find ourselves in a bit of a bind now, what with the witches having stepped out to find a third vampire. And the bars are cursed, if you haven't noticed, meaning I cannot break out." He raised an eyebrow, and Sakura saw that it was pierced with something silver. Huh. Must have been turned in the rock era. "Unless you have something special about you besides that pink hair that can get us out."

—or maybe he'd just pissed off a witch and been cursed with it.

Sakura narrowed her eyes and flipped onto her side, reaching out to touch the bars of the cage, only to find the bars were drenched in vervain and pulling her hand back with a hiss.

"Cursed? Seems like vervain to me."

The vampire tilted his head and narrowed his eyes. Sakura felt a shiver go up her spine at his look. "Really? How peculiar. The witches must not see you as much of a threat, sweetheart."

He was old, that much Sakura could tell. Very old. It took a certain amount of age to hone that kind of smug self-satisfaction at all times.

"Though you do seem rather young, for a vampire. Tell me, sweetheart, what was it that a little baby vampire like you could have done to warrant the attention of this particular witch coven? They've been a rather annoying pain in my side for centuries now."

He liked to talk, too. Lovely.

Sakura looked around and rooted around in the dirt by her cage. _Cursed_ , the older vampire had said. The salt circle wasn't centered around their cages, which meant that it wasn't a part of the curse. And it wasn't a part of Sakura's cage, as far as she could tell . . .

But the candles . . .

"Not much of a talker, are you, love? No matter, I highly suspect the witches will sacrifice you first—weakest first and all that. You understand."

The vervain on the bars she was reaching through was burning her arms, but Sakura gritted her teeth through the pain. If she could just reach it . . .

 _There._

A metal rod, buried just underneath her cage. Thin as her pinky finger, long enough to stretch across the cave to the older vampire's cage and, if he was to be believed, to where the third cage would be set up with the third vampire, Sakura supposed.

These things were always done in threes, of course.

Sakura pulled her hand back through the bars and looked up. Honestly, these witches could have at least put a little effort into their plan. Seriously. It's just plain rude to cage a vampire and not plan it out decently.

She looked back over to the older vampire with a huff, but paused when she found his red-ringed eyes on her, head canted to the side.

"Now, sweetheart, you—"

Five witches came through the mouth of the cave, black haired and scowling faces. The oldest witch, the one obviously in charge if her self-satisfying walk was anything to go by, led the group.

There was no third vampire.

The witches paid Sakura no mind, eyes darting back and forth between the older vampire's cage with a sneer and the oldest witch, listening to her rant and rave something that sounded very much like Grecian.

So. Greece it was. Good to know.

Sakura would have been very put off if she had learned that this coven had planned to sacrifice her somewhere ugly.

One of the younger black haired witches walked around the perimeter of the salt circle, obviously trying to look busy so the older witch would ignore her. Sakura appreciated her effort. _She'd_ want to stay away from an older, self-satisfied witch like her, too.

The older vampire was just grinning in his cage, dimples showing. Sakura was seriously untrusting of those dimples.

When the younger witch neared Sakura's cage, Sakura jostled the metal rod near her, upsetting the salt circle in a part the younger witch had already checked.

The older vampire was watching her, his eyes gleaming.

When the coven stopped getting yelled at by the older witch, they arranged themselves outside the salt circle in a line, still a good distance away from the older vampire, who was in a cursed cage and inside the salt circle.

Interesting.

Sakura licked her dry lips, the remains of her red lipstick long gone. She was _so_ going to Italy after this. A shopping trip was what she needed, and she'd just been to Paris. Maybe she'd go back to the United States here soon, visit L.A. again . . .

The witches were chanting something gruff sounding now. Sakura idly wondered if they were planning to sacrifice a chicken. Or a goat. It was never a good time to be a goat when witches were involved.

Well. It was probably never a good time to be a goat, _period_.

Sakura sighed and waited. The older vampire was still watching her and grinning a secret little smile, his dimples more prominent in the candle light. It was starting to creep Sakura out.

It was when the older witch pulled out a talisman that Sakura started paying attention. A talisman Ino had told her about before, when she'd still been alive and reading her family's spell books in the living room of her house, Sakura baking in the kitchen and yelling for Ino to take a break and come help her get flower all over herself.

The talisman had a goat head on the front of it.

Figured.

"The more powerful covens have a talisman defining their powers," Ino had once explained to Sakura, back when everything was made up of rooms filled with herbs and hot green tea being handed out and ancient Yamanaka spell books being rooted through on weekends. Ino had pointed to a page on the dried and crinkled paper that might have once belonged (somehow) to an animal. "The goat represents sacrifice and blood offerings, like how the Yamanaka talisman represents healing and protection."

"You deal with herbs and plants," Sakura had said.

"And the goat coven deals with blood and bone. There are some covens that have nothing but pure evil at the root of their beliefs. I know we argue about the good and bad of witchcraft as it is, but this kind of magic . . . nothing good comes from it, and after a while it eats at the witches until nothing is left except blood and bone."

"I though you said they just dealt with blood and bone in their sacrifices."

"Why do you think they need to sacrifice it in the first place?"

Sakura understood why the older vampire had been bothered by this coven before. This was a coven that would sacrifice anything and everything, but only really wanted the vampires as old as dirt.

The most powerful.

The older witch placed the goat talisman on the salt circle.

"All magic needs a conduct," Ino had explained. "Something to align the magic. Nothing comes from nothing. But something can come from something. Don't let yourself be that something, Sakura."

Which explained what the metal rod was for. Something to align the magic from Sakura to the older vampire.

Sakura eyed the older vampire with renewed interest. How old must he really be, to warrant this kind of magic? To have come in contact with this coven before, and still be alive?

It was when Sakura saw the oldest witch pull a long and narrow dagger out from one of her billowing sleeves and begin making her way towards her cage that Sakura internally groaned and lifted herself up from her hunched position and kicked out the bars above her head.

And it _hurt_. God, it hurt, but Sakura just gritted her teeth together. The witches may not have been smart enough to paint the bars above her head with vervain, but Sakura had been starved for a few days now and her bones creaked with the effort it took to lay enough force behind them to break the metal bars. They had been thicker than she'd expected.

But by her third kick (without much leverage or space to pull back her foot, thank you very much), enough of the bars were gone for Sakura to shimmy through and for the witches to start screaming.

It was _always_ done in thirds, after all.

The oldest witch raised the arm not holding the dagger out to Sakura's head. Sakura winced and gritted her teeth at the migraine the witch was giving her, all the while coming closer to her with dagger in hand.

Sakura kicked out at the candle nearest her before the witch rendered her unconscious once again, knocking it over. The connection broken, all the candles went out and fell to the floor.

It was dark in the cave, dark enough for the older witch to lose her concentration, just a bit.

Sakura sped over to one of the younger witches—the one who had checked the salt circle before, the poor dear—and tore into her neck before she could so much as gasp. The older witch screamed in rage.

The blood was warm on her tongue, and it eased the ache in her head only by the slimmest margin. A low moan reverberated in her chest, and Sakura dropped the dead witch.

Before she even hit the floor, Sakura was over by the elder witch, and broke the wrist holding the dagger to plunge it into her own heart. A gurgle and mumble of incoherent Grecian words that made no sense to Sakura (and would likely not have made sense even if she had spoken the language), and the witch was dead.

It only took a moment longer for Sakura to take care of the remaining three younger witches, snapping their necks in quick succession.

The older vampire was still lounging in his cage—literally _lounging_ , the bastard—and smirking up at her. Sakura forced her eyes back to normal, her teeth no longer extended. Her monster pushed against her skin, hungry for blood. Witch's blood always tasted sour and unfulfilling, like a watered down meal, and now she just wanted to get back to her hotel and find a decent meal before moving on.

But first . . . the older vampire.

He grinned at her weariness, and Sakura rocked back on her heels at the pure _sharpness_ behind his gaze.

"It seems I was wrong," he murmured. "Turns out you're not so useless after all."

"I'm sorry, do I look like I care about your opinion?" Sakura snapped, reaching down to pick up the goat talisman from what remained of the salt circle. She smoothed her thumb over the engraving and Latin words inscribed in a near invisible font on the ridges.

The old vampire had the gall to chuckle at her. "Now, sweetheart, that's all in the past. Tell me—where exactly did you learn so much about witchcraft? You appear to know more than the average baby vampire."

"It is truly amazing," Sakura said, "how much I do not care, nor have any desire to answer your questions. In fact," she muttered, "why don't you tell me about why this particular coven was so interested in your demise?"

He quirked his head at her, and Sakura refused to look away. "Witches hate vampires."

"That's not an answer."

"This coven—that you so kindly just made extinct, as those five were the very last of the lineage, and were in a last ditch effort to kill me by the way, so thank you for that sweetheart—" Sakura rolled her eyes. "—but this coven and I go back a very long ways, and I'm afraid at one point I may have lost my temper and, how you say . . . committed a type of genocide on their indigenous people at one point or another."

Sakura swallowed at that. The last mass killing of any one coven had been over three hundred years ago, and this older vampire had to already been pretty darn old to have the sort of power to even contemplate such a move. Witches—and particularly covens—were hard as hell to kill.

Witches were the one creature who could stop a vampire where they stood, simply by reaching out and giving them an intense migraine kind of pain in their heads. It had been known to kill more than one baby vampire before, if given by a powerful enough witch.

"So they're extinct now, huh?" Sakura said, mostly to herself as she pondered how she was going to destroy the goat talisman . . . maybe burning it down and making a nice pair of earrings with the metal. Or maybe she'd just throw it in the ocean and be done with it.

"Quite." The older vampire gestured to the cage around him. "Thinking about letting me out anytime soon, love?"

"Still thinking about it." Running back to her hotel was going to be a pain. Sakura would have to go at full speed, and while no human would be able to see her move at that speed, running barefoot had never been her favorite thing to do. Her lost shoes were going to be a sore point until she got some shopping done, she could already tell.

The older vampire narrowed his eyes at her, his grin sharp and grating. Sakura froze and eyed him, wondering if she could just throw _him_ in the ocean and be done with it.

"Now, I'm not all bad. I haven't tried to kill you, and I'm not even mad about you killing all the witches yourself, and so quickly too. Personally, I would have made the youngest of the witches pull out her intestines to show to the older witch until her voice had gone horse with screaming, and then worked my way up by age until I tore the oldest witch's tonsils out." He dimpled.

Yeah. Never, _ever_ trusting those dimples, Sakura decided.

She blinked slowly at him. "You are still sitting in a cursed cage, as far as I can tell. And if you could have broken out yourself, you would still be playing out your little torture fantasy."

Again, that cutting gaze. The power was radiating off him now, and Sakura could see how he was re-evaluating her every moment they stood there verbally sparring with each other. Sakura wondered how long it had been since someone—especially a baby vampire—had spoken to him in such a way.

She pushed a stray curl of hair out of her face, grimacing at how dirty and bloody her hand was when he spoke again.

"How about a bargain?"

She lowered her lashes. "A bargain?"

"Mmm. I'm going to guess the reason you are so hesitant—and with good reason—to let me out is because you don't trust me not to tear that pretty little pink head off the moment I'm out."

Sakura crossed her arms, refused to back down. "I would expect you wouldn't want anyone to know about your little misstep with these witches. Weaknesses and all."

If possible, his grin widened. "Here's what I'm offering, sweetheart: You lift the curse—and I am guessing you know how to do that, all the witchcraft knowledge in your head, after all—and let me out of this cage, and I give you my word that I will not harm a hair on your head. Deal?"

Sakura tilted her head back like she was thinking about it. "Mmm . . . it's a good offer, but I'm going to need something a little more concreate. How about . . . ," Sakura tapped her chin, and then snapped her fingers. "I let you out of that cage, and you promise to not only not harm me now, but promise you can _never_ harm me, nor send anyone to hurt me."

A vampire's promise—and especially one from a vampire as old as he obviously was—was as good as she was going to get. The only thing stronger than a vampire's promise would be an overseen witch blood pact, but since all the witches around were currently dead and Sakura like really, _really_ wanted a bath in the next hour . . .

He placed a hand over where his heart would have been beating had he still had one and looked scandalized. "Why, love, you really think so low of me as to harm you after killing all these pesky witches for me?"

"Yes," Sakura deadpanned.

He threw back his head and laughed. Bastard. "What's your name, sweetheart?"

"That's not part of our bargain." A name would only help him if he ever decided to remember the baby vampire who was clever enough to kill five powerful witches in the midst of a ritual.

The vampire stretched his hand out, so that he was almost touching the cursed bars of the cage. Sakura wondered exactly what it _was_ the curse did. "I accept our bargain."

"And no trying to find me," Sakura growled. "I will not be hunted."

His eyebrows rose. "Hunted? No. Though if I so happen to find myself in the same city as a certain baby vampire, you cannot blame me that."

"I'm not that interesting."

"I look forward to tearing out the heart of whoever would dare put that idea in that pretty little mind of yours."

 _That_ took Sakura off guard. She struggled to get the next few words out. "Our bargain?"

"Agreed, love. You have my word that neither I nor anyone under me shall ever harm you, nor will you ever be hunted by me." He raised one pierced eyebrow at her. "Good enough, sweetheart? As much as I enjoy this whole ambiance we have going on, personally I'd like a change of clothes soon."

Sakura grumbled and stepped forward to place the goat talisman in front of his cage, right on top of where the metal rod was attached to his cage.

Nothing physical happened, but when Sakura raised her eyebrow at the older vampire, he grabbed hold of the cage.

Nothing happened, and a slow, easy grin pulled at the corners of his mouth.

Sakura rose, realizing she was close enough for him to touch. The older vampire kicked out at the cage, and it was decimated.

He stood slowly, and Sakura refused to run, no matter what her instincts told her. He'd made the bargain, and he was old as dirt. If Sakura had learned anything as her time as a vampire, it was that the ancient ones were the most cunning, evil, vile creatures to roam the earth, but they were also the ones who never broke a bargain.

He was suddenly right in front of her, close enough that the curves of her breasts and the planes of his chest could touch if they both took a deep enough breath.

He was tall. It was the first thing Sakura's brain told her, but to be fair, there was a lot going on with the older vampire that was hard to take in all at once.

There were more piercings than she'd first realized. Eyebrow, lip, nose . . . The rock era was too soon for him to have been turned during, but he was obviously a fan. And his eyes . . . they weren't just ringed with the normal red a vampire gets when they go too long without feeding—they were ringed multiple times.

A hand came to rest on her cheek, and Sakura froze. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"I'd like a name, sweetheart."

"And I'd like a bath," Sakura retorted. "Looks like only one of us will be getting what we want."

There was something wicked and crooked behind his eyes, and Sakura was surprised at her body's reaction to it. The parts of her made up of teeth and nails wanted to peel back his skin to see what was behind it.

Instead she clenched her fists.

"How about both," the older vampire murmured, sliding a thumb across her bottom lip, catching a stray smear of blood from the younger, dead witch at their feet. He lifted his thumb to lick it clean and leaned down far enough that she could see his pupils, dilated and blown wide.

"The name's Pein."

* * *

Author's Note: I know I said this would only happen after I was finished with _Two Morons and a Mad House_ , but, well . . . I couldn't help myself.

I hope you guys like this. It's different, and I'm not sure if this is gonna be just a really short oneshot and leave it as is or maybe this will be a few chapters long or maybe it'll just be some random drabbles relating to vampire!Sakura. Dunno.

Tell me what you guys think so far. This is ever so loosely based also on _The Vampire Diaries_ as far as the whole vervain and the witch migraines thing goes. If you haven't ever watched the show, that's fine, it won't matter for this story. Also, I'm a serious shipper of Klaroline, so my Pein is kinda like Klaus and Sakura is kinda like Caroline. Not completely, because they're still different characters in my head, but I wanted to write vampire!Sakura, and so this happened. (I may try my hand one day at writing Klaroline fanfiction, but not right now.)

Please **REVIEW!** Tell me ya'll want more of this story, and how much.


	2. Chapter 2

Standard disclaimer applies.

* * *

The next time Sakura saw Pein, she was in Munich for Oktoberfest.

Tourists didn't bother her all that much (though she was sorta one herself). They were easy meals. They drank too much, were too loud and obnoxious, and if picked right, wouldn't be missed for some time.

Sakura saw it as doing a community service.

Sometimes Sakura would go out and dance. Find the dark and dank nightclubs in Europe and wear her little black dresses and heels, and wait. That was all she had to do.

The men (and sometimes women) came to her. Maybe a sly glance over a sweat slick shoulder, mascara heavy against the glitter on her lashes and cheeks. But mostly she just waited for that heavy hand to land on her waist and for a hot breath in her ear, and she was set to go.

Though there were also the times she hunted.

There was little Sakura saw as unforgivable. She was a relatively forgiving person, okay? She could hold grudges like no other, but she didn't like to. Grudges were too much damn work when you lived forever.

That night, Sakura sat in a bar. She nursed a way too large mug of beer that, while one of the better brews she'd had in a while, didn't interest her. She had waited too long to eat, and her monster was snapping its teeth at her.

Tourists were easy meals for a reason, and one of those reasons was currently happening in the bar. Local boys knowing how tourist girls worked. It set her teeth on edge.

A slight of hand was so quick. But Sakura's eyes were quicker.

Humming low in her throat, Sakura slid out of her booth and stumbled over to the bar, giggling growing louder as she went.

She ordered, and waited some more.

It didn't take long.

A local boy, blond and blue eyed and cherub cheeked, slid right up to her. Sakura giggled. Let her gaze linger on his arms and chest. Fluttered her lashes and pretended to blush with stolen blood.

His English was horrible, and Sakura pretended to listen. His face was slick with sweat, large hands nervous and fidgeting.

It didn't take long. Sakura pointedly looked away towards the dance floor. A slip of the hand. Sakura smiled at the boy.

He took her dancing. She let his hands linger too low on her back, wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close. It was so crowded, as it always was in those places.

It was only when Sakura pulled away from the boy's neck after a few minutes, licking the wound closed, that she noticed she was being watched.

Scowling, Sakura pushed the boy away, and he stumbled, dazed. Sakura looked into his eyes, pupils dilating for her compulsion, and said, "You will not remember any of this. You will never again slip something into a girl's drink or take advantage of a situation. Understand?"

He nodded and repeated her words back to her.

"Personally, I would just have eaten him," Pein whispered in her ear, coming up behind her on the dance floor and laying his hands on her waist.

Sakura scoffed. "I ate enough of him, thanks. And something tells me you would eat anyone, despite their poor choices in life."

Pein's chest vibrated against her back as he made a thoughtful sound. Sakura pulled away, only to get the barest of space between their bodies. She huffed and turned around to look at him.

"You promised not to hunt me."

"And I'm not. Oktoberfest is a personal favorite of mine, sweetheart. I'm sure you can understand the appeal." He swiped a thumb over the bottom of her lips and her chin, tilting his head. "For a baby vampire you are quite the neat eater, love."

"We're in a club. It might be crowded, but someone's sure to notice a girl tearing out the throat of a local. I'd rather not start a panic in Germany, thanks."

"Baby vampires aren't supposed to have that kind of control."

"I'm a control freak."

He dimpled at her, and Sakura would have reeled back if his iron arms and the push of bodies around them would have let her. "Control freak or not, your control is surprising."

She scowled at him. "Great. I surprise you. Is there a reason you hunted me here or am I really just that lucky?"

"You're a fascination, love." He stroked the underside of her wrist, bringing it up to his mouth to show just a hint of fangs, scrapped the thin and sensitive part of her skin against it. "It is odd, how one such as you could escape my notice for so long. I do try to take note of the newly made vampires around."

Sakura swallowed and pretended the heat spreading up her body in a delightful rush was from her recent meal. "What are you, the vampire police? There are way too many newly turned vampires for you to watch."

"You'd be surprised. Tell me, Sakura, what do you know about me?"

She froze, glared at his smug face and let some of her monster bleed into her eyes. "You found out my name. Good for you."

"Now, now, Sakura—you had to have known I would look into the pink haired baby vampire who so brilliantly got herself out of a vervain soaked cage and killed five powerful witches after being starved. You can hardly fault me that."

"You promised not to hunt me. Looking into me—"

"Tell me, Sakura," Pein purred, watching her with a predator's gaze, "how is it someone like you was able to stay under my radar for so long and know how to stop a witch's ritual? Don't think I didn't notice how hungry you were when you woke up in that cage. You should have been ravaged, raving and feral with hunger. The dried blood on your dress should have driven you mad, but instead I got you—radiant and clever, with that sharp mind able to dissect not only the ritual about to be performed, but how to lift the curse on my cage, and then wait out your instincts long enough to bargain with me."

Sakura's fingernails dug into his shoulders, tilted her head up at him. "And? Is there a point to this?"

Pein licked his lips, and it was then Sakura noticed that she wasn't the only one who'd feed recently. "Curious, isn't it? How strong and clever you are."

"How should I know?"

"Ah, but that's just the thing." His eyes bleed black. "I know all about strength, and how it's only given through pain." He smiled at her, fangs peeking out at her. "I know a lot about pain, sweetheart. I've burned cities to the ground from pure boredom, torn out livers and kidneys while keeping a person alive. I have learned how to make a person break without actually laying a finger on them, weaving the fissures in a person's mind just enough to make them go insane. The mind is a delicate thing. Centuries, as you will find, makes a vampire curious in the worst of ways, Sakura."

She lowered her lashes. "Do you put that on your resume?"

He laughed, throwing his head back. "How you fascinate me, Sakura. Tell me, who was it that tortured you?"

She gritted her teeth, grinned up at him with fangs. "Why is it a vampire as old as you would be interesting in a little ol' baby vampire like me? This seems like the opposite of ' _not hunting_.'"

"This is hardly—"

"There is more than one way to hunt a person, _Pein_ ," Sakura said, keeping her voice light as she leaned forward, smiling in his space and feeling him tense up in surprise, maybe a gleeful delight behind his eyes. "Tearing open a wound to get the scent—that's one way to hunt. To make someone run from fear of pain. But there is the hunting of the mind. The way to make someone jump at shadows and paranoia."

Dimples. Pein lowered his face down enough that Sakura could feel his breath on her lips. Sakura forced herself to keep staring into his ringed eyes. "Oh, how much _fun_ you are going to be, sweetheart."

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "The last man who said that to me ended up with a broken neck."

He grazed his lips along her cheek. "I think you'll find I'm not like other men."

Sakura pushed him away, and she was under no illusion that it wasn't because he allowed her to do so. She pointed a finger at him. "Don't follow me."

Pein pushed his hands into his pockets and smiled at her. "Until next time, love."

* * *

He knew her name.

 _Fuck_.

Sakura kicked at a broken bottle on the street. This was bad. The bargain was a risk—hell, letting him out of the cage was a risk, but one she needed to take.

She just hadn't counted on him being so damn persistent.

He'd mentioned centuries with such ease. She knew he was old before, had understood that from his casual reference to his presence in the last mass witch hunt. Had made a point to tell her about the blood he'd spilled during that time.

But now . . .

Sakura had an inkling before, but now she was almost certain. He'd asked her what she knew about him. He knew she knew.

He was an original.

The beginning of vampires. The first of the first. Unkillable. Powerful. Unstoppable.

She rubbed a hand against her forehead. Ino had warned her about originals. How they had grazed cities to the ground for the smallest of crimes against them. How they played the politics of vampires like a child's game.

And the torture stories.

 _God_.

"The original vampires are bedtime stories for the witches," Ino had once explained to Sakura. She'd been playing with her long, beautiful blond hair that Sakura begged to braid all the time. "Nightmare stories for bad children, full of wicked smiles and sharp fangs, nothing but evil. They hunted. And killed." She'd scoffed. "The tales of old, stubborn witches, really. Honestly, they seemed more lonely than anything else to me."

Sakura had sipped her mint tea, thoughtful. "Maybe they're just tired of being alive."

Ino had shaken her head, blond ponytail swaying. "No, I don't think so. Tired of running, maybe, but I think it's harder to actually be tired of _living_."

Because there was a difference in living verses being alive, and vampires had already had the latter taken from them during their first death.

Sakura had frowned. "What could the original vampires, the most powerful creatures to ever exist, be running from?"

"There will always be monsters worse than you."

"Sounds more like they're running from their own personal demons to me," Sakura had remarked.

Of course, that had been a time when Sakura had listened to Ino's witch stories with the ease of believing she'd never run into original vampires, would never have to weave her way through the politics and hierarchy of vampires. How no one could ever give Sakura a single goddamn name of so much as _one_ original vampire. The older vampires knowing of the originals personally had seemingly gone missing or dead (probably both) over time, and anymore tales of original vampires were just that: tall-tales of monsters witches used to put fear and hatred into younger witches.

Ino had always scoffed at that. "Preconceived notions on good and evil by elder witches whose life spans were a blimp on the timelines of vampires, and somehow they think they know everything." She'd flipped through one of the more vicious Yamanaka's spell books with distaste. "Look at this—spells and curses for the demons who roam the night, and not one of those elder witches who created them looked past the evil of vampires to see the sacrifices of their own souls in doing so. What justice is that?"

Sakura stayed away from the older vampires for a reason. A damn good one. The older vampires—not even the original ones—were bored. And a bored vampire was the worst thing to be.

They tended to keep collections. Trinkets, jewels from long dead kings and queens, land and castles from their homeland.

Some collected vampires.

An unlucky newly turned vampire might find themselves staring down red-rimmed eyes. The original vampires—the scarce handful that there were—never lost the redness that usually only came with hunger. It explained why Pein still had it even though Sakura had seen the blood on the collar of his shirt.

Originals were _always_ hungry.

Ino had made sure she'd always be protected. She wasn't in fear of becoming a part of a vampire's collection, not really. Pein _couldn't_ do that because of his promise.

A drunken group of friends stumbled by Sakura on the street, nearly knocking into her and laughing all the while. Sakura licked her lips and thought about eating again, but her monster wanted something else.

 _That_ worried her the most. It had been a while since Sakura had been in such close contact with another vampire, and her monster told her that she wouldn't— _couldn't_ —accidentally break Pein like she could others. He could hold his own against her vampire.

She thought about his fangs on the inside of her wrist and shuddered.

Shopping. Maybe she'd go and get a massage. Maybe slip out and buy a new red dress and go dancing again. This time without an interruption.

* * *

Author's Note: Wow. So many reviews from the last chapter. This super quickly written chapter is a little reward for that, short as it may be.

The chapters for this story will almost always be short, I can already tell ya'll that now.

Please **REVIEW**! I appreciate the support I'm being shown for this new story. More reviews means faster updates!


	3. Chapter 3

Standard disclaimer applies.

* * *

The diner was nearly empty, the results of a business open twenty-four hours and it currently being closer to dawn than was socially acceptable to be awake. Sakura was somewhere in Georgia, and it was too damn humid for her tastes. Her curls were limp and dead, and she internally groaned.

She was visiting an old friend.

She'd thought long and hard about asking for help. Pein was a mystery that could lead to her death, and it wouldn't be a painless or quick one.

He'd shown up in the last three countries she'd visited.

Peru had been her next stop, but Sakura had learned before how to hide her tracks, and visiting the U.S. would help immensely.

The witch had been cautious, a little welcoming. Flickering eyes towards the door and back. But she owed Sakura, and Ino had made sure of her being able to get help if she ever needed it.

"Shit happens, forehead," Ino had once joked, poking the forehead in question. "You never know when you might be in a bind, and witches can be bitches." She'd grinned at her own rhyme. "As much as I may proclaim to the opposite, my protections can only go so far sometimes."

Which was how Sakura had been able to walk into the little witch shop without bursting into flames. Witches could be so paranoid, and Sakura didn't feel like having to spend time dissecting the spells surrounding the shop.

The little red-headed witch had taken one look at her, standing in her doorway in the middle of the foggy afternoon, and scowled deeply. "Oh, hell _naw_." She'd had a slight southern drawl.

Sakura gave a small smile. "I hear you can help me with a little tracking problem."

It had cost Sakura, but worth it.

"The spell prevents anyone from following you," the red-headed witch had said. She'd pushed her rectangular glasses up her nose, surprisingly cool looking for a human in Georgia heat. "But if you happen to run across them, if they catch your scent nearby, the spell is moot."

"Thank you, Karin."

She'd snorted. "I'm only doing this as a favor to Ino." She'd pointed one very long red manicured nail at her with distaste. "Don't think I like your kind."

But she'd also paused, shuffled her feet as Sakura turned to leave. Flicked her eyes towards her left shoulder and back. "Was it . . . ," Karin began. Sakura paused and tilted her head to the side. Karin took a steadying breath. "Did she suffer?"

Sakura looked her in the eye. "I still dream of her screams."

And wasn't that the truth?

Sakura played with the fork in front of her, grimacing at the wash stains on it, pondering health standards. Really, though.

She'd stumbled into the diner about a half hour ago, sleep deprived and rearing to get out of the United States. It brought back memories she wasn't particularly fond of, and her nightmares were only going to get worse the longer she wasn't distracted.

Looking around, Sakura licked her lips. She'd already downed three cups of coffee—drowning in sugar of course—and annihilated a plate of chicken and waffles drenched in a light smattering of syrup.

Her monster thrummed just under her skin. Ever since her little run in with Pein it had been right there, just under her surface. Sakura pushed the concern of that away, telling herself she'd worry when she had to. If it continued or got worse even with the distance she was committed to put between her and the original vampire . . . then she'd worry.

A body slid into the booth opposite hers.

"You know, Sakura-chan," Naruto said, "the least you could do state side would be to send a text. Or fire signal. Or, you know, a _phone call_."

Sakura grinned, wide and goofy. "No one sends a fire signal anymore, Naruto."

"Really? A pity. I like fire." He grinned at her, not bothering to hide his fangs. Somehow no one took notice of his always there fangs. Sakura sometimes wondered if that was the witch blood in him, still prominent after being turned.

Naruto was the only witch turned vampire she'd ever met, most once-witches choosing suicide over being undead. Unholy, as they would say.

Sakura snorted at that. There was stubborn and then there was just plain stupid. She hadn't exactly been jumping for joy when she'd been turned, thanks ever so much, but she'd dealt well enough.

Naruto had been a smart witch, choosing life over witchy hubris.

" _Wizard_ ," Naruto had always corrected her with a groan. "I was a _wizard_. Why does no one see the difference?"

"The only reason you want to be called a wizard is because you're obsessed with Harry Potter," Sakura always chided, smile wide and snarky. "Even female witches call you a witch. It's not based on gender, Naruto."

Now, Sakura shrugged. "You changed your number."

Naruto narrowed his eyes at her, mock glaring. "So did you! We change our number every few years for a reason, Sakura-chan. And don't give me that," he continued, eyeing her puppy dog eyes. "You know as well as I do that you could have easily found out my number if you really wanted to."

Sakura just smiled, eyes sad. "I've missed you, Naruto."

His eyes and smile softened immediately. He made an effort to toughen up, though, and look annoyed. It didn't work. "You're the one who left. I expect groveling."

Huffing, Sakura thought his reaction was a little uncalled for. "Seriously? You're the one who helped me get away in the first place."

"Yeah, but I hadn't realized you'd stay away so long! Otherwise I'd have come with you."

And wasn't that just a punch to the gut? But then Sakura thought about Greece, and Naruto being the third vampire in the goat coven's ritual. Three was never a good number to have around witches.

"I'm sorry."

Naruto blinked, clearly taken off guard. Sakura couldn't decide if she was offended at his surprise at her apology or not. She wasn't _that_ stubborn, okay? Just cautious. A lot.

But not with Naruto.

"Oh. Well," Naruto blubbered, rubbing the back of his head, upsetting his crazy blond hair even more. He laughed quietly and fiddled with the napkin in front of him. "I could never stay mad at you, Sakura-chan."

Sakura looked away. Cleared her throat. "How've you been? You know, since I left."

Naruto gave her a small smile. "Bored without you." He canted his head to the side. "Have you eaten recently?" he asked quietly.

He wasn't talking about the chicken and waffles she'd just devoured. Smiling, she said, "Not quite yet. I was just pondering it, actually." She looked around. "Slim pickings here."

The town was small, and the diner was scattered with drunks and druggies, looking for something to sate their hunger in wake of their high.

Blood from druggies always tasted stale to Sakura, and the alcohol to blood ratio always tasted a little too watered down. A little, fun college student at a bar was one thing, but a forty-year-old drunk was another.

She had standards, okay?

"I've got some blood bags back at my hotel," Naruto offered shyly.

It was a dig that Sakura internally rolled her eyes at. There was only one hotel in this little backwater town, and if Sakura went back with Naruto and didn't stay the night, he'd know she'd be out of the country within the next few hours.

But whatever. It was Naruto, after all.

"Sure, that sounds good."

His responding grin made it worth it.

Blood bags weren't her favorite. When she was first turned and woke up starved and feverish, she'd been caged and chained to the wall. She'd been weak and exhausted, and her blood frenzy hadn't helped matters.

She'd been fed blood in pathetically small spirts from cold blood bags, and ever since she could barely keep down anything that wasn't warm and fresh. That meant blood straight from the vein, really.

Naruto heated up the blood in the microwave, handed the chipped mug to her. Sakura breathed deep, forcing herself to wait for it to cool, breathed in the smell. After a moment, she felt her face change—eyes darken and fangs push through her gums.

After she was finished, Sakura set the mug down on the counter, turned to see Naruto drinking straight from one of the blood bags. He looked up at her and grinned. "Want some more?" he asked, blood dripping down the corner of his mouth, down his chin. His tongue snaked out to catch the drops.

Sakura wrinkled her nose. So _messy_. "No, I'm good."

He shrugged and went back to eating. Sakura rolled her eyes. She hopped up on the small kitchen counter and played with Naruto's room key. "Do you have plans?"

"Huh? When have I ever planned anything, Sakura-chan?"

She pressed her lips together to prevent the smile that tugged at the corners of her mouth. "Feel like accompanying me for a bit?"

She had no reason to believe Karin's spell wouldn't do the trick—she might hate vampires, but her pride would prevent her from giving Sakura a faulty spell. Reputations and all.

Even if it didn't work . . . well, she'd cross that bridge when she came to it. Besides, Sakura was under no pretense that Pein couldn't find out every last person—vampire, witch, human, or otherwise—she'd ever come into contact with if he so desired, and Naruto would be pretty far up on that list.

She refused to run anymore, and preventing herself from seeing other people would be the same as hiding as far as she was concerned.

Naruto stared at her wide-eyed. Sakura huffed. "It's not _that_ much of a surprise."

Naruto stuttered. "You just like your privacy."

She shrugged. "Maybe I just want some company." She chewed her lip. "How do you feel about sand?"

He groaned. "You and beaches." But his tone told her he'd agree.

She'd tell him about Pein on the flight. It would give her time to explain everything and be public enough to prevent Naruto from freaking out _too_ much.

Though she might have to compel the whole of first class to forget about a blond boy and pink haired girl talking about original vampires and goat-headed witches. Or in Naruto's case, him screaming about it.

Yeah, Sakura wasn't looking forward to it.

* * *

Indeed, there had been screaming. And threats. Many, many threats. Sakura was a little surprising and a little impressed by Naruto's ability to vocally— _very_ vocally—describe all the ways in which he was going to rend the original vampire limb from limb for touching her.

She'd taken mental notes.

Sometimes Sakura forgot how old Naruto truly was. The era he was born in full of samurais and temples. His life had not been a pretty one, nor blood-less.

Now they were in Croatia.

Sakura didn't like owning homes. After a few decades most vampires invested in properties in their favorite parts of the world, but Sakura thought it required too much work. She moved around too much as it was to really stay in one part of the world for more than a few years at most, and even then she'd found that she could only stay still for a couple months.

Croatia, though, was a re-occurring favorite, and it just so happened that Naruto owned some private property on the beach.

Really, though. And he tried to be exasperated at _her_ love of sand.

They'd been there for a month when Sakura finally started to enjoy it. Pein hadn't shown up. No hint that he knew where she was. And he'd always shown up in the first week or two wherever she'd gone before, so maybe she could hope.

She wandered through some street stalls, looking at some hand-crafted gifts and oddly molded pottery. Vendors and customers shouted in Croatian, but unlike Grecian, Sakura could understand a few words here and there. She could even speak to one vendor without embarrassing herself too badly.

She was turning to leave the stall when a hand settled on her hip and a hot body pressed against her back. Sakura froze, recognizing the musky smell, and groaned.

"Oh, _for God's sake_."

An amused noise reverberated low in Pein's throat, one that might have been a laugh. "Hello, sweetheart."

She turned to face him fully, a scowl already in place. Instead of backing up, Pein stayed where he was, so that she was practically nose to nose with him. "Really? You just don't have anything better to do, do you?"

He quirked his head at her, let a pit open up behind his eyes. He looked at her like she was something to be devoured. "The masking spell was clever, love. I had to eat five of my most useful witches to find someone who could lift it."

Sakura swallowed. Felt a spike of fear for Karin. Pein hummed. "Your red-headed witch is untouched, Sakura. She does good work."

She took that in, wondered why he hadn't just gone after Karin instead of going through his personal plethora of witches he likely threatened and/or killed. Karin could have lifted it had she really wanted to, though not without a sacrifice. And knowing Karin, she'd have sooner died than conceded to the orders of an original vampire like Pein.

She felt his words sink in. "You lifted the spell?"

"Hmm. Not quite. It's useful, and I'd like to know what it was you used to make your witch place it on you. Spells like that aren't easy to come by, love. No, I just altered it a little." He grinned and watched her bite her lip with an iron gaze. "I made it useful to everyone else _but_ me."

Sakura placed her hand behind her, found the edge of the stall she'd been looking at and used to it to push herself away and around Pein's arms. She didn't try to run, knowing he'd probably enjoy it more than anything. She couldn't outrun him, and they both knew it.

Pein drew her into a tiny alcove between two decaying buildings, away from the crowd and out of the sun. She glared up at him; damn him for being so tall.

"You're a sick bastard, you know that?" Sakura said casually. She threw her hands up into the air, pushed down the desire to stomp her foot. "I literally have done _nothing_ to warrant this kind of stalker-ish behavior."

Amusement pulled at his mouth. Dimples peaked out at her, just a bit. "A baby vampire with a surprising amount of control and a bit more magical knowledge than is usual is more than a little interesting, Sakura." He leaned in close, so her back was pressed against the wall. "The fact that I have found little to no information on you is even more so."

One of his hands weaved its way around the inside of her elbow, down to the sensitive part of her inner wrist. He rubbed circles there with his thumb, watched her through possessive eyes that made Sakura clench her muscles. "Modern technology is an improvement for needs such as mine. Everyone leaves an electronic trail. A profile online tells a story about family, friends—who to torture to get the right kind of reaction out of a person." Pein smiled down at her, all childish glee with something ruthless underneath. "But you—a baby vampire who not only does not leave a basic trail, but also doesn't leave a body count in your wake. It makes one wonder, sweetheart, why it is you're not finishing your meals."

Sakura leveled her chin at him and growled. "Seems like you just answered your own question, Pein. Everything leaves a trace, and a death count is like starting a traveling blog with all the places I'm visiting. I'm dead, not stupid."

A considering sound rumbled in his throat. Sakura tried to yank her wrist back, failed, and continued to attempt to ignore the motions of his thumb, feeling her pulse point—how it sped up the more he touched her. "That leaves the question as to whom it is exactly you're hiding from."

Sakura laughed. "Hiding? No, _never_ ," she sneered. The idea left a disgusting feeling inside her stomach, like a never ending pit. Hiding was a weakness.

Pein raised a pierced eyebrow. "No? Then why the roaming from country to country, love?"

"Maybe I just like traveling."

He considered her for a moment. Quirked his head at her, then suddenly smiled, teeth bared. "Then perhaps you wouldn't mind company." His voice lowered to a seduction, a low baritone that left her feeling flushed and simultaneously annoyed. Like _hell_ would he get that reaction from her. "I've been alive for a long time, sweetheart. I dare to say I've seen a few more cities and towns than you."

"I'm sure," Sakura deadpanned. "You _are_ as old as dirt."

Amusement flashed in his eyes, a flicker of delighted surprise. "Is that a yes?"

She snorted. "Thanks, but no thanks. I like my privacy, and from the fact that you seem unable to comprehend the concept of personal space, I would be guessing I'd be losing that."

The hand that had been circling her wrist moved tantalizingly up her arm until he was cupping her cheek, moving on finger across her bottom lip. "Hmm. I would have believed that before you'd gotten yourself a traveling companion. Tell me, sweetheart, does the blond vampire satisfy your needs? You're looking a bit _hungry_." His tone was velvet, his strokes across her lips begging her fangs to come out to play.

Scoffing and chalking up her flushed skin to the heat of the day, Sakura smacked his hand away. "Seriously? First of all, he has a name that I'm sure your stalker-ish behavior has already made sure you know, so _use it_. Secondly—"

His tongue cut her off.

Sakura's hands caught his shirt in her hands out of surprise and shock. She fisted them, hearing seams snap. Pein kissed her like she was an indulgence; his tongue slow and languid, his tongue ring a sharp shock to her senses when it rubbed against the top of her mouth, fell along nerves she hadn't given thought to before. The hand not cradling her face went to the small of her back, fingers splayed out and pressing her impossibly closer to his chest than she already was, the hard planes of him leaving her imagination running wild.

It took her a second—enough time for Pein to caress out a low groan in her throat—and then a sound of indignation cut them off, Sakura using every ounce of her vampire strength to throw him off her.

He didn't even stumble, like she would have liked him to. The _jerk_. Just smirked at her and let her get an inch of space between their bodies, enough room for Sakura to glare up at him with fire in her eyes.

"If you _ever_ try that with me again, I'll make you regret it."

His eyes flashed, his monster pulling at her skin. Her gums positively _ached_. "Of that, I have no doubt, love. You seem like an awful enemy to have." And it didn't even come out as sarcastic, to Sakura's surprise. It sounded like a promise, a _dare_.

His hand stay splayed on her back, and he reeled her back in, until she could smell him . . . and smell herself on him with her enhanced vampire sense. She started.

Pein grinned. "Curious, isn't it? Something as innocent as a kiss—" Sakura almost snorted at that; that kiss was the very opposite of innocent, thanks very much. "—and your scent stays on my skin. I'll be tasting you for hours, sweetheart, thinking about that little moan I coerced out of you with only my tongue. I only hope I linger on yours as well."

She swallowed, pretended not to notice her monster raging against the back of her mind; to sink her teeth into his bottom lip and take what she wanted from him.

Yeah, _that_ would be a bad idea. Like, of the massive, irreversible kind. Not going there, thanks.

Pein brought her hand up to his mouth, kissed the back of it and Sakura had to fight back the shudder. "No, next time will be different. I've run into you—"

" _Stalked_ me," Sakura grumped.

"—in every country you've gone to, but I'll wait, Sakura. I'm a very persistent, patient man, love, and you'll be worth it."

She growled. "I will not be collected. I am not something to be _owned_."

"Collected?" Pein's eyes flashed. "Such an odd thing to fear. No, I will never cage you. But I will hoard you; pick through all those self-defense mechanisms you've built up, tear down those walls of yours. Remember that, little vampire. I'm an ancient, selfish creature."

Sakura bared her teeth, let her fangs peak out. "Careful, Pein," she purred. She fisted her hands again in his soft shirt, hoped she _ripped_ it. "I give as good as I'm given. If you attempt to tear me down, I'll return the favor."

He cupped her face, brought her chest to chest with him. "Oh, sweetheart," he purred right back. "How I look forward to it."

And when he left her between those two crumbling buildings built long after Pein had been created, if Sakura stayed out much longer that night than previously planned and came home to Naruto with blood on her teeth and a rush in her head, smelling of alcohol and iron and salt water, well, it was no one's business but hers.

* * *

Author's Note: Not sure how I feel about this chapter. These shorter chapters are really working for me, so I'll keep doing that, I think.

Oh my gosh, you guys. I don't think I've ever gotten this much feedback so soon after posting a new story, so thank you all so much for that! Your comments and favorites inspire me and push me to write even when the muse is being difficult, which is what I need.

As always, please **REVIEW** and I will get the next chapter up as soon as I am able.


	4. Chapter 4

Standard disclaimer applies.

* * *

Sakura _hated_ summers.

They were too damn hot and humid for her tastes. Her body temperature might not work the same as it did when she was human and she might not sweat like she used to (a blessing of God, that was), but _still_. Yeah. She hated summers.

She'd always hated summers, even when she was human. Firstly, sweating. _Eww_. No one liked that. Also, summers just kinda stretched out too long for her tastes. When she had been in school, there had at least been something to _do_.

She liked plans and highlighted calendars. She liked having clubs to run and papers to write, if for no other reason than to have that glorious moment afterwards when she was done and she could go home and read and pamper herself. She felt that she deserved it.

She liked studying and knowing the answers to questions. She like getting that A+ on papers about long dead white old dudes who once did something or other that interested school boards and colleges enough to make them worth writing about. She liked being able to check off another _to-do_ for her college applications and resume.

Summers didn't allot her that. Summers were long days and shorter nights, muggy days and lying out in a bathing suit. Sure, the tans were nice, but Sakura was self-trained to be busy all the time.

It wasn't even that she _liked_ being busy. She just liked to be useful, and those two unfortunately went together.

There were no clubs to take care of, nothing to lead and organize until a few weeks before the school year started. But that still left at least two months of doing _nothing_.

Working was an option, but selling commercial items and clothing to annoying people was never her forte, and there was always the fact that that didn't let her feel that she was actually _doing_ anything. Prom committees and barking orders at her school newspaper staff were what she did best.

Her hatred of useless summers extended over to her afterlife. And while she could go out in sunlight fine (the rumors and sucky romance novels about what vampires could and couldn't do were likely started from vampires themselves, being bored as they were and wanting to play a little with the humans), Sakura had always been a night owl. Even when she was human.

Also, people tended to go on vacations in the summer.

 _Ugh._

Tourists weren't always bad. They could be decent food. But, damn, she was so tired of people stopping to snap pictures of _everything_ and take selfies and asking her (most often rudely) to stop and take their picture because _gosh darn it kids, this is a family vacation and you will enjoy this family time together even if it kills you!_

Sakura silently thought she could help with that last part.

Naruto, however, thrived on this time of year. He was a creature born in sunlight despite his rebirth.

But sometimes his enthusiasm made her think homicidal thoughts.

"Sakura-chan, Sakura-chan!" Naruto chanted. Sakura turned her head ever so slowly to look at him over one shoulder, her large sunglasses shielding the death glare she was giving him. He looked at her wide-eyed, none the wiser. "There's a circus coming!"

He held up a poster in front of her face, so close she couldn't even read it. Growling, Sakura snatched the paper out of Naruto's hands as he practically bounced up and down, his eyes darting everywhere excitedly. She looked down at the poster to see there was circus coming to the town they were currently residing in—a place a little outside of France, bordering on Spain. She was _so_ going to Barcelona after this.

Sakura squinted at the poster, which looking like said annoying tourists had trampled over it for a few days. "Naruto," she said slowly, like she was talking to a toddler. (Never mind that he was technically a few centuries older than her.) "Where did you find this?"

Naruto bounced on his heels as he pointed decidedly at the sidewalk across the road.

Sakura blinked. "You found this . . . on the ground?"

"Look, Sakura-chan!" Naruto ignored her and pointed at the flyer. "It says the circus is coming to town tomorrow! We have to go!"

She eyed the poster with a small amount of distaste at the dirty smudges it was likely going to leave on her fingertips cooped together with an equally small amount of interest. She liked circuses, had ever since she was a little human girl. She liked seeing lions and tigers and all the big cats doing tricks. She liked watching the acrobats and displays of art and the overpriced snacks and drinks.

Sakura hadn't been to a circus in quite a long time.

"Okay," she said, and Naruto gave a whoop of happiness.

* * *

When they were both nineteen, Ino had once told Sakura that the key to happiness was not giving a shit about anyone else.

Sakura had told her that was harsh, and Ino had scoffed. "Be selfish, forehead. No one is going to give a crap about either of us; no one is ever going to look out for a young witch and a human girl. And even if you spend your days being with people you care about, if you continually put them first all the time, you're going to starve yourself of any happiness you might find."

"I put you first," Sakura had told Ino.

She'd nodded. "And I put you first. But not all the time. And you don't put me first all the time. If you did, you'd grow to resent me, and vice versa. If it ever comes down to your happiness and me, I want you to pick your happiness." Ino had smirked. "I sure as all hell am gonna pick my happiness over your pink ass."

Sakura had rolled her eyes, but her stomach had felt like someone had kicked it around and thrust it back into her body, like a deflated soccer ball. "But you _are_ a part of my happiness," she'd argued.

"Well, of _course_ I am," Ino had said indignantly, looking slightly offended. Sakura didn't buy it for a minute.

Ino had then shrugged. "But people are just parts of happiness, not the fulcrum. They can be parts of the reasons you're happy, but not the defining factor."

The room had smelt of home, all witchcraft ingredients only useful for protection and healing, of herbs and things Sakura had always teased were nothing more than weeds while Ino went into a rant about their useful properties.

"Don't be a martyr, Sakura," Ino had said softly. "I'm serious. Sacrificing yourself isn't always the selfless thing to do. Sacrifice requires someone to be left behind, and how do you think they would feel?"

Sakura had watched as Ino poured more tea into her mug. The tea was rose colored, and smelt of the flower. Ino then sprinkled something grainy into it and swirled it around until it dissolved. She handed it to Sakura. "Drink, Sakura. I intend to make you as happy as possible for as long as I am able."

Ino had looked tired and sad, and Sakura felt something gather behind her eyes. "Ino?" Her voice had shook, and Sakura took a sip of her tea out of habit and familiarity. Ino always gave her tea. Sakura never asked what kind it was.

Ino hadn't looked her in the eye. "I can't protect us forever," she had whispered. "I can't make you happy. Not forever."

Sakura took another sip of her tea, even as her vision had blurred and faded. "You'll always be a part of my happiness," Sakura had slurred. "Even when I'm gone—dust to dust, ash to ash," she had recited, thinking about some of the things Ino would say in her spells. "Even then, when you use my bones for your wacky spells and grind my marrow into nothing, you will be a part of my happiness."

Sakura fell back into the cushions of the couch in Ino's home, smelling rose and woods and something salty, reminding her of the sea. Ino made a pained noise.

"Your bones would ruin any spell," Ino had said, voice wavering. "Too pure. You don't have enough hate in you for any spell needed bone or marrow."

Sakura had attempted to shrug, though she hadn't been able to determine if she'd succeeded. She took another sip of tea and closed her eyes. "Pity. I'd have liked to remain a part of your happiness for as long as possible, and you know how I like to be useful."

She'd fallen asleep without hearing Ino weep.

* * *

Sakura glared at Naruto.

Naruto grinned back, unperturbed.

She pointed one dusty pink manicured finger at him. "You are so buying me booze for this." A high pitched scream cracked through the air, and Sakura cringed out of habit. She ground her teeth together and idly wondered if her fangs could be worn down if she did that enough times when they were out.

Not that her fangs were out right then, of course. But still.

There were children everywhere. _Everywhere_.

Yeah. Booze.

Of course children and their too tired parents on vacations would be drawn to the circus. Of _flipping_ course.

Sakura rubbed two fingers against her temples as she took slow, even breaths as Naruto ran away from a small group of children that had decided to play a game with Naruto, hallowing and screaming all the while. A game that Naruto was all too happy to be a part of.

She should have known. Naruto drew kids to him the way the color yellow drew ladybugs. The way moisture drew fungus.

Naruto let out a loud bark of laughter as he let one of the little boys catch him and fell to the ground in mock horror. "Oh, you got me!" Naruto laughed. The little boy giggled.

Sakura sighed and turned away. She waved her hand back at Naruto as she walked away, not sure or caring if he saw it. If he wanted to find her later, all he had to do was follow her scent.

This circus was made up of multiple tents. Some she and Naruto had already explored, finding the acrobats and more popular of the attractions. Other smaller tents were the ones they were still exploring . . . or, well, _had_ been exploring. Until multiple kids had latched onto Naruto like leeches while their fatigued parents went back and forth between trying to get their kid away from annoying the strange blonde haired young man and sitting back at a safe distance sipping beverages (mixed with a dash of alcohol, most likely) and taking a breather, keeping an eye on their kid as they played.

Funny, that. If Naruto had wanted to hurt or take any of the kids, the parents keeping an eye on their children wouldn't do any good. It was also funny to note that those kids were most likely the safest as they'll ever be with Naruto.

Sakura bought herself an iced coffee from one of the vendors (studiously ignoring the price of it) and made her way into one of the smaller tents set up. It was a brightly colored red tent with gold edging down the sides, swirling and contracting with a bit of a breeze. It was a fortuneteller's tent, and Sakura almost walked right back out the second she realized it, especially when the witch looked up from across the room.

The inside was lushly decorated in red and gold cloth and ribbons, oddly bright for the stereotype of a fortuneteller's booth. Finery draped from the ceiling, and Sakura was reminded of some of the more lavish areas she'd visited in Turkey some years ago. It smelt of incents and lavender, and Sakura's long dead heart clenched in phantom pain at the familiarity of it.

When the witch turned to look at Sakura, her hands clenched so hard she almost shattered the cheap plastic of her iced coffee.

"Shikamaru," Sakura greeted the witch, and was rewarded with a look of utter terror and surprise grace his usually stoic features before all expression was wiped clean and a lazy mask was put into place once more.

"Sakura," Shikamaru drawled. "I hadn't expected to see you here. Or anywhere."

She hummed and swayed over to where he sat. There were no other visitors in the tent, which surprised her. "Business trouble?"

He huffed. "I'm supposed to be on break." He lifted a pipe that had been hidden under the tablecloth he had been sitting at and took a slow breath from it. He let it out slowly, making circles with it. "Apparently my break just ended," he muttered.

He was dressed in some kind of ridiculous robes, Sakura saw. All black and red, draped around his body. She held in a snort. "Was there not a turban to go with the outfit?"

Shikamaru blinked at her, and it was only because she could read him so well that she saw he was offended, and gestured impatiently to one corner of the tent, where a blood red turban sat. Sakura let out a harsh laugh. "Is there a glass ball too? Please tell me there's a glass ball."

Shikamaru glared at her. Sakura noticed that the tent seemed much bigger and dimmer than it should have been, having seen it from the outside not a moment ago. It was likely a side-effect of whatever witchy magic Shikamaru had over the place. Likely the same magic he had over the place to keep the people out while he was on his break (and vampires out at all times; another reason Sakura was forever grateful for Ino's protections left on her).

Shikamaru's gaze flicked down to her left shoulder and he sighed, a great, heaving thing, like his mere existence was more than he could deal with. He ushered her over to him with one hand, a sudden and jerky movement of his wrist. "Come here. Let's see it."

Sakura narrowed her eyes and almost left the tent on principle for that . . . but it had been so long since she'd seen Shikamaru. Had been so long since she'd seen anyone from that time in her life.

She carefully shuffled over plush pillows and couches and drapery to take a seat next to Shikamaru. She could smell the sickly sweet scent of his pipe and whatever it was he was smoking this decade. This close, Sakura could see the few whispers of crow's-feet around his eyes and the light dusting of grey in his black hair. He was by no means old, per se, but the years had not been kind to him.

The years had not been kind to any of them.

With careful, hesitant hands that left his pipe in his mouth, Shikamaru reached out to touch her left shoulder, black eyes flickering up into her green ones for permission. He knew what she could become if she felt cornered or trapped, and a cage wasn't always necessary to make her feel as such.

She nodded, a slight dip of her head, but it was permission, and Shikamaru slid her shirt off her shoulder until her collarbone was bared along with the smattering of freckles there.

Covering many of those freckles was a cherry blossom tree, about hand sized and imposing on her pale skin, right over her heart. When Shikamaru traced a finger down the edge of it, it seemed to shrivel back and wither. She heard him suck in a breath as he stared down at it, the brightly lit pink and red colors of the petals, the rich brown of the tree. It curved around her shoulder, and it seemed to twitch every few seconds, spreading out and then coming back in, like it knew the mysteriousness of the world and wanting out, out, _out_ , but knowing better than to risk the danger of it.  
"Does it look any different?" Sakura asked in a teasing voice, though she was anything but.

Shikamaru looked up at her through heavy, black eyelashes. His look was sad, a little reverent. "Cherry blossom. A symbol of hope, humility, innocence, and spring. Eternal life." He paused meaningfully. "It's beautiful, Sakura."

She rolled her eyes and tugged her shirt back up her shoulder. "Well, that's good news, since, ya know, it's stuck on my body for the rest of eternity." There was a bite to her words.

"Ino would be proud."

At that Sakura froze. Her eyes flickered to Shikamaru's, dared him to have even an inkling of pity there. There wasn't any. Only pain, and Sakura remembered that she wasn't the only one who suffered still from Ino's death. It was just that she would have to suffer longer than anyone else.

"Ino," Sakura said slowly, tasting the word on her tongue, "would have appreciated the irony." God, had it really been so long since she'd spoken her name out loud?

"She'd be proud of you," Shikamaru continued as if she hadn't spoken. He took another slow drag from his pipe. "Not because of the tattoo. You're strong, Sakura. Stronger than Ino ever was, stronger than I will ever be."

He threw his head back, baring his pale throat to her. Sakura thought that was rather ballsy of him to do in front of a vampire, even if she never would attack him like that. He closed his eyes, and stayed silent so long Sakura almost thought he'd fallen asleep. It wouldn't have been the first time.

"You killed them all."

Sakura blinked slowly at him, even though he couldn't see her. "You're going to have to be a little more specific."

"Troublesome woman," Shikamaru muttered fondly.

"I did," Sakura said. "Every last one."

"The children?"

She looked at him. _Really_ looked at him, until he opened his eyes and looked back at her. "Yes," she said, and plucked his pipe out of his hands before he could do more than make a noise of protest. She took a long drag and puffed, watched the smoke settle in the air and dissipate. "Them too. No one was left alive."

Even though she wasn't looking at him, Sakura could feel his eyes on her, weighing her. "Are you going to attempt to kill me, Shikamaru?" she asked, a smile tugging at one corner of her mouth.

"It would be my duty," he said slowly, then sighed dramatically. "But I find myself terribly lazy these days, and vampires are always so damn difficult to pin down. Fast bastards, and what-have-you."

He tugged the pipe back from her hand and put it in his mouth, though did not inhale right away. "I miss her . . . troublesome woman that she was," he murmured with the pipe sticking out one side of his mouth. "It never gets easier, this annoying pain." He ghosted his hand over his chest.

"Speak for yourself," Sakura said, mouth suddenly dry. "I have eternity to feel like this, you bastard. At least for one day it'll stop for you."

He grunted, "Only you can make death sound poetic."

"I try."

"Sakura," he said. "Thank you."

She swung her head around so quickly that had she been human, that speed would have likely snapped it. She almost gasped.

"I mean it," Shikamaru grunted, hard eyes turning to catch hers. "I won't ever say this again, okay? But I'm glad that you lived, even like this. I'm glad you were around to pick up the pieces and clean up the messes. I'm sorry you had to, that it fell to you, but I'm still . . ." he trailed off and then thumped his hand down on the cushions behind him.

"I'm so fucking angry," he finally said, not sounding angry at all. But Sakura knew enough to eye him warily. "About it all." He slowly tilted his head to look at her, reached out with a hand to touch her cheek.

"But I'm glad you made them suffer," he finished, and Sakura felt a tendril of pure fear when she felt the spark of power radiate from his fingertips to her cheek, reminding her just what kind of witch Shikamaru was, and how powerful. Her tattoo felt red hot on her skin, reacting to the magic, but she felt no fear for Shikamaru, just instinctual fear of the magic in general.

God knew she had reason enough to fear magic.

When he pulled away, Sakura stayed still, frozen. "What was _that_?" she asked.

Shikamaru waved a hand in the air. "Protection," he said simply. "Karin contacted me. Said something about a _'hellava powerful vamp'_ coming into her shop, asking about a protection spell you gave her." He eyed her, scanned her face for clues he was never going to find. Sakura almost laughed at his impression of Karin's southern accent.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "I can handle it. He's just a crazy old vamp who's latched onto me for some entertainment, it seems."

"That's more than a little dangerous, Sakura," Shikamaru drawled, narrowing his eyes at her.

"I _know_ that," she gritted out. "But there's nothing I can do about it. I can handle it." She thought about his little touches and the inch of space he barely allowed between their bodies, how her monster thrashed against her mental barriers in retaliation to the original vampire's presence.

She wondered where he would pop up next.

Shikamaru eyed her for a bit longer and then seemed to reach some kind of forgone conclusion, sighing and tilting his head back up to ceiling and blowing out smoke. "Ino's laughing down on us all right now," he muttered, more to himself than to her. "Troublesome woman."

Sakura let herself out of the red and gold tent, thinking about blood and tattoos and chains.

* * *

Naruto caught up with her just as she was pondering about going back to their hotel, already thinking about Barcelona. Sakura was gearing herself up to pull Naruto away from the circus and little kids and flustered parents when she caught sight of his once wide, blue, blue, blue eyes.

Without thinking, Sakura caught a fistful of Naruto's orange shirt between her fingers and speed them both to a busy part of the circus, sat Naruto down on one of the thankfully empty nearby benches and left without a word, only to bring back a human woman not a moment later. Sakura kept a hand on her back and led her to Naruto, sat the silent and enthralled woman next to him, and nearly forced Naruto's head into the space between the young woman's shoulder and neck.

It didn't take long to break down Naruto's barriers, and when Sakura heard him drinking, let go of the back of his head to align herself in front of them both, folding her arms and looking around with bored contemplation. Her shoes wiggled on the ground impatiently as she waited for Naruto to finish.

After a few more moments, Sakura swiveled back around to grab at Naruto's shoulders and pull him back, her grip on him light, but the pressure she exerted on his shoulders not. "Naruto, _stop_. That's enough."

Naruto blinked up at her with black eyes and Sakura sighed and wiped the corners of his mouth with a spare napkin she'd picked up just for this reason. Let it never be said Sakura Haruno wasn't a planner.

Sakura whispered a few calm words to the woman, who looked back at her dully and nodded, taking some of Sakura's blood from the fresh wound she'd bitten into her wrist for, and walked back to her family fully healed and only a little light headed.

"Sakura-chan," Naruto whimpered, and she shushed him and speed both herself and him to their hotel. It took only moments, but she eyed Naruto the entire time.

Once the door to their lush hotel room was closed, Naruto slid down to the floor against the wall, hands going up to his blonde hair and tugging. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he whimpered.

"Naruto," she said slowly. "What happened?"

"That woman," Naruto began, and she saw that he was trembling. "That woman was a _mother_."

Sakura blinked, wondered what part of this conversation she was missing. "Many women are," she said equally slowly.

Naruto let out a sound that was mix between a sob and a laugh. "No, she was one of the moms of the little kids I was playing with," he said with a shaky breath.

"Why were you hungry, Naruto?" She knew he had eaten before they went to the circus.

His head flicked up at that, and Sakura could see the residual black in his eyes still fading out. "I saw them," he said. "I saw all those little kids and moms and dads and _I'm never going to be one of them, Sakura_."

Ah.

She slid down to the floor next to Naruto and hesitantly put one arm around his shoulders. He immediately leaning into her embrace and shuddered against her. "Do you ever just really hate it?" Naruto asked after a moment of not quite crying, but of gripping her shirt and crumbling inside his own body. "Do you ever just really, really hate what we are?"

Sakura thought about it. Thought about warm afternoons with Ino in her warm house with her warm tea and warm hands. Thought about freezing cages and blood on the ground and so much damn hunger. Thought about screaming. And crying. And begging. She thought about the sins she'd committed, things she would never come back from and wondered, not for the first time, if she regretted any of her choices.

Because that was all life was: a series of choices. Picking the lesser of the evils. Or not even that—just choosing what you could live out eternity with on your conscious. Even choosing to have a conscious, because that was always a thing.

"I do," Naruto continued, when he must have decided she wasn't going to answer. "I regret so damn much. But not enough to stop living, not enough to regret my choice to live as a vampire." He gave a horrible, shaky laugh then. "I wonder what that makes me."

"I don't regret it," Sakura said, testing out each word like they were a decadence she wanted to savor. "The choices I made weren't always good ones, but they're ones I don't regret. They were still mine to make."

 _"_ _The children?"_ Shikamaru's voice floated back to her.

So much screaming.

"What we are isn't a curse," Sakura said. Naruto sniffled. "It isn't. Not unless you make it out to be. You want a kid? Then we'll get a kid. God knows there are enough kids out there without parents, or with parents that are just shitty. We'll adopt one and raise it as our own and give him or her the choice to be made into a vampire when they're old enough and everything. But you're not allowed to name them; knowing you you'd just name them something like . . . like Boruto or Burrito, or something."

He hugged her harder, and breathed out a sob. "I would be a good dad."

"You'd be a fantastic dad, Naruto. You'd spoil the kid rotten while I'd be stuck being the mean parent." She poked him in the ribs.

"Have you ever wanted kids, Sakura-chan?" he asked.

Sakura closed her eyes. "No, not really," she said, no hesitation. "The whole white picket fence with a nice husband and 2.5 kids was never my thing."

"I never wanted kids," Naruto said. "When I was a witch, I mean. It's required of witches at some point, to carry on the coven and everything. But I didn't want any kid of mine to grow up . . . like me. Like how I did."

Sakura swallowed. "Okay."

He burrowed closer into her body, like he was seeking out her warmth. "Are we damned creatures, Sakura-chan?"

"No," she said, almost harshly. "The people who tried to make us into monsters are."

 _"_ _The children?"_

"I'm glad you chose to live, Naruto," Sakura said softly. "I'm glad you chose life even with the idea of damnation." She huffed. "Now stop being melodramatic and help me pack my shoes; we're going to Barcelona. I _know_ you still have that home there with that nice pool and everything. And if I have to deal with tourist season I'll deal with it on a private beach."

Naruto laughed, high and sweet that time, and Sakura smiled with her fangs.

* * *

Author's Note: Well, no Pein this time. Sorry about that. But, hey, we've got Shikamaru! I meant to have him play a bigger part in my last story, but alas, it just didn't seem to happen. But now he's here!

I had to write about summers and my hatred of them. Just had to. It's like 120 degrees Fahrenheit where I live right now. Effing desert. Too dang hot to live in.

Please read and **REVIEW**! Reviews make the world go 'round. Reviews make me update faster, too. There's always that. ;P I'd like to hear y'alls theories about Ino's death and Sakura's past and everything. It would make my day.


	5. Chapter 5

Standard disclaimer applies.

* * *

Sakura woke up in a cage.

Again.

Honestly, these witches were just getting repetitive. If she was going to have to endure eternal life and the infernal hatred of every godforsaken witch coven from here to the west coast, these torture tactics could, at the very least, be creative.

Instead, Sakura just gets to continue to wake up in blasted vervain soaked cages.

At least this time the witches were smart enough to put vervain on the bars above her head _and_ place a curse on the cage. Sakura had more respect for this witch coven in comparison to the goat coven.

"Fucking bloodsucker," one of the witches sneered, kicking dirt and dust and whatever else was on the floor into Sakura's cage. He was dark skinned and beautiful, as it seemed was the most basic genetic gift all witches had. Dark eyed and short black hair with a smug, self-satisfied grin that completely ruined any sex appeal the witch may have had. Pity.

Sakura sighed and blew a bloody strand of hair out of her eyes. One of the witches had taken a knife to a piece near her face and now all she could think about was that lock of hair. She was going to have to get a freaking haircut again, even though she'd just had one. Haircuts weren't cheap, you know. If she was going to be locked in a vervain soaked and cursed cage, at least have the decency to not ruin her perfectly sleek haircut.

Luckily it was only that one lock and she still had her long hair, so she'd be nice and not hold it against the witches.

Much.

Hey, she was nice. Most of the time. But touch her shoes or her hair and all bets were off the table.

Hell hath no fury like a woman with a bad haircut.

Instead of a cave this time, however, Sakura was in some grungy basement that looked like it could be used as the next bad horror movie set. There were even chains hanging off the walls near her, and Sakura had to force herself to take deep, even breaths when she woke up and saw them. Something smelled horrible near her and she was a little weary to look too closely at the corner to her left and the soaked sack that was leaking . . . something. Really, she didn't even want to know.

Sakura closed her eyes and breathed deep. She thought about the three witches in the room with her, including the beautiful but rude dark haired witch. They were burning incents, but instead of the smell inducing calming, centering thoughts, it set Sakura's teeth on edge. And not her human kind.

She wondered if this was retribution for her slaughter of the goat coven. If so, Sakura thought Shikamaru could have given her a heads up. That boy knew everything about the witch covens and what they got up to, despite his lazy persona.

She gouged her nails into her palms and narrowed her eyes. Shikamaru probably didn't know, all things considered. He wasn't all seeing, despite being able to manipulate shadows and ferret out secrets. She was nearly positive that he would have said something had he known.

Sakura didn't bother trying to talk to the coven. They sneered at her and cursed her the moment she woke up. Her skin was wet with vervain water, and Sakura could feel her monster on her face every time they threw another pail of water on her. Her clothes stuck to her skin, and she prayed to god that they didn't dry before she could escape and peel them off. It was already going to be painful enough, no need to add having to peel off her skin along with her clothes if they dried.

She was going to take her time killing them all.

One of the elder witches with too long hair that was in dire need of a good trim was chanting Latin and burning Sakura's stolen hair over a fire in front of her. She and a few more witches had walked in a few minutes ago, barely glancing Sakura's way. The other younger witches were spread around her cage, waiting and watching and sneering. The older witch had a tree branch of some kind in one hand, Sakura's hair in the other, and Sakura watched as the witch burned both together.

When the older witch pulled the branch away, Sakura could see that her pink hair was twined around the branch, embedded into the bark. She froze.

Shit. _Shit_.

Sakura bit her lip so hard she drew blood, the smell not helping calm her monster. There was no metal rod underneath her cage this time, nothing being used to tether Sakura to the magic.

The older witch came closer to Sakura with the tree branch in both hands, cradling it like a child, like something precious. It was going to kill Sakura, unmake her.

God, no wonder there was nothing tethering her to the magic—nothing _needed_ to. Her hair and what she would bet her new Prada bag on was a cherry blossom branch was good enough.

 _Dammit, Ino,_ she thought. _Who did you tell your secrets to?_

Sakura lifted her arms, grinding her teeth all the while at the pain that came with the movement, and ripped her shirt right over where her tattoo was. The older witch froze when she saw it, a loud gasp from another witch nearest her cage. Sakura ignored them, and gouged her nails into the tree tattoo until she drew blood.

When blood rose to the surface, the cherry blossom tree sagged and then sprung up, up around her shoulder and body, growing and growing ever taller and wider. Sakura could feel the magic pouring out of her, and as she watched the older witch's mouth open and close frantically, Sakura internally smirked as she watched the witch coven understand just what was inked onto her body and the protections that came with it.

Sakura reached out and tugged on the metal bars in front of her, screaming as her flesh burned from the vervain. The metal snapped under her hand and Sakura went on to the next bar, each step painstaking slow. It was only possible because of the magic in the tattoo breaking the curse on the cage, and now all she had to do was get over the pain of breaking out of an ordinary metal cage with vervain on the bars. Yeah. Simple.

She was on her knees with both hands clasped around the bars as she heard the witches curse and chant something new, something she already knew wouldn't do any of them a lick of good.

Then someone screamed, and there was the tell-tale sound of flesh ripping open.

Sakura looked up and saw Naruto with his hand buried in one of the younger witch's chest. Blood leaked from his mouth and with one smooth movement Naruto ripped the witch's heart out of his chest, letting the organ fall from his hand with a wet squishing sound.

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto said, locking eyes with her, tilting his head like a cat. She froze, took in his red eyes and sharp canines. He was still as he stood there a moment longer, then quickly snapped the necks of the three witches nearby.

The elder witch snarled and threw her hand up. Naruto flinched but didn't break stride. He all but ignored the elder witch and speed over to Sakura's cage between one blink and the next, batting her hands away from the cage bars and ripping them away himself, not even pausing at the vervain on them.

Sakura shuffled out of the hole in the now broken cage, feeling each acute movement and shift of vervain soaked clothe on skin. She ground her teeth together and stood, only paused when Naruto laid a hand on her arm, then reeling it back at her hiss. She took a step back from Naruto and watched his fists clench when he realized what the liquid dousing her skin and clothes was, and how any kind of touch would hurt like hell right then.

"Sakura-chan," Naruto said, lowly. "Do you want to kill her or shall I?"

The elder witch hissed and backed up a single step, her pride not allowing anything more. "Damned creatures," she growled. "Killers. Monsters."

"Oh, yes," Naruto sneered. "Of course that's what we are. Monsters. Because it just _has_ to be the ones with the sharp teeth being held in cages instead of the witches throwing vervain water on a defenseless woman for sport. Of _course_ we're the monsters in the room."

Sakura was shivering. The room was too cold on her wet skin, and she was so weak. And so hungry. "Naruto," she said, with meaning.

Naruto nodded and moved forward, but paused at the new presence in the room.

Pein was standing in the doorway, looking around with a raised brow that spoke of age and an innate distaste of everything. His gaze swept over the elder witch dismissively, but when his gaze landed on Sakura, with her wet skin and trembling body, monster leaking through her gaze, his eyes hardened and he went very, very still.

"Sweetheart," he murmured, "I'm going to need some answers after this." He tore his gaze away and glanced at Naruto, and she watched him blink and narrow his eyes at him.

Naruto began to reach for Sakura when the elder witch raised her hand and started chanting again. The remaining witches alive in the room followed form and Sakura sank to her knees in pain, holding her head. A deep whine came out of Naruto's throat, but he stumbled towards the elder witch still.

Pein, however, just gave the elder witch an annoyed glare and then took her by her throat and threw her into the wall.

Sakura wasn't sure what happened next, except the pain in her head was fading only for her body to remember the pain of the vervain on her skin and the lack of blood. She could smell so much blood around her now, and she refused to look up at the screams and sounds of tearing flesh and gurgling. She heard Pein murmur something to a few of the witches before he killed them, and some curses spat back at him, others pleading.

A hand brushed her hair out of her face, but Sakura refused to look up. She couldn't hold back her monster anymore, and she knew her eyes were black and her teeth elongated, and she wasn't sure she could hold herself back if she moved even one muscle. And she really, really didn't want to be the reason a happy family in a house nearby was slaughtered and drained dry.

A bleeding wrist was thrust in front of her face, and Sakura didn't even hesitate. She sank her fangs into the quickly healing skin and drank. She moaned low in her throat, having been starved for at least a day and weakened greatly from the vervain and curse on the cage. Her bones felt brittle and her body thrashed under the strain of her monster, fighting to break out. The blood was as close to heaven she'd ever get, and somewhere in the back of her mind she understood that this wasn't witches' blood she was drinking. It was something heavier and thicker, something a little sweeter.

Before she was even close to being full, another hand gently but firmly pried her away from the rapidly healing wrist. Someone cooed lowly in her ear, stroking her hair away from her face as she stayed hunched over and fought for control. This was what she was so good at: control. She breathed deeply through her mouth, not trusting herself with the scent of blood still heavy in the air. She could still hear screams, and knew that it was Naruto hunched next to her, offering her his blood. Naruto would never torture witches like Pein was, would never make their screams and pleads and curses into a symphony all around her.

She was in a bathroom in the next instant. She must have made a noise, some kind of muffled scream or whimper. Cool hands peeled back her clothes and put her under a warm spray of water. Sakura let Naruto do this. She idly thought about swatting his hands away when all she was left in was her bra and underwear, but she was in too much pain too care. It was Naruto, after all.

Gentle hands were running through her hair, and Sakura bit her lip to muffle her yelp of pain at the tangled knots Naruto found there and the feeling of stray droplets of vervain falling onto her scalp. She heard Naruto hiss at that, both from the vervain on his fingers now and at the silent tears that were now running down Sakura's face.

She wasn't sure how long she stood under the spray of water, not opening her eyes. Her hands were still fisted and her nails were gouging into her palms. She bet her manicure was ruined—another strike against this witch coven.

Eventually Naruto turned the water off and ran a towel over her body and hair. She couldn't feel any of the vervain left on her body, so now it was just an overall soreness she felt. The lovely aftermath of soreness and weariness of torture was sometimes almost worse than the torture itself.

Sakura grasped onto the towel after another moment of letting Naruto fuss over her and wrapped it around her body, opening her eyes.

Naruto looked back at her, face soft and gentle and loving. But his eyes—his eyes were drawn and iron and still red as blood. He hadn't bothered to rinse off the blood on his own body—the witch coven's blood, maybe a bit of her blood—and she could barely see the tips of his fangs peeking out.

He handed her a long-sleeved shirt and pair of sweats, both too big for her body. "It was all I could find," Naruto said as a sort of apology.

Sakura nodded and stared at him, jaw clenched, until he walked out the bathroom door. Sakura unfolded the clothes and carefully and so, so slowly peeled them on. Each movement felt strained and breakable. She caught a glance at her cherry blossom tree tattoo and grimaced; it was still too large on her skin, still too red and brown and so very angry looking. But it wasn't as bad as before, and Sakura would guess that whatever spells and curses the witch coven had in place were all gone now.

She was still barefoot, Naruto not having been able to find her a pair of shoes, and this utterly annoyed her. Why couldn't she get through _one_ torture session with her shoes on her feet, intact? At some point Sakura would start to think the witches just wanted to steal her awesome shoes for themselves.

She exited the bathroom to see Naruto right there, waiting for her. He gave her a tentative smile and looked her over. "As beautiful as ever, Sakura-chan," he said, rubbing the back of his head. His eyes were still red and he hadn't lost all of the hardness there, but he was trying for her.

Sakura smiled back, also tentatively. Post-torture conversation was always so awkward.

A shrill scream punctured the air, and Naruto winced, smile dropping. Sakura blinked, surprised, and looked down the hallway to where she would guess was the basement Naruto had carried her out of. "He's not killed them all?" she asked, even though she already knew the answer. Fucking sadist.

Naruto looked uncomfortable. "He had some questions to ask the witches." Another high-pitched scream.

Sakura sighed and started walking towards the basement. Naruto followed. Maybe her lost shoes were going to miraculously be somewhere down there.

Pein had the elder witch pressed against the filthy wall of the basement, one hand wrapped around her throat, another hand buried in her stomach. He turned at the sound of their footsteps.

He grinned, and Sakura stopped at how feral it was. How every molecule in her body was telling her to _run_ , that this was a predator that she could never compete against. Because Pein looked almost bored at the turn of events, though that layer of rage underneath the surface was almost so heady Sakura could smell it.

The much more annoying part of her was her monster, so much closer to the surface than she could remember being in quite a while, purring and licking its lips and thinking about how much _fun_ Pein would be.

She ground her teeth together, annoyed at her own body. "What are you doing?" she asked, sounding as exasperated as she felt.

Pein blinked innocently at her. "Why, I'm just cleaning up the mess." He twisted the hand that was lodged in the witch's stomach and she screamed, yelling something in Latin and gibberish. Pein turned back to the witch. "Feel that, dear? That would be your spleen. Would you like to see it?"

Sakura saw Naruto wince out of the corner of her eye. She just sighed again, thinking about taking a warm bath when she and Naruto made their way back to his cottage home. He had a Jacuzzi to die for.

" _God_ , Pein," she snapped, because she had just been tortured and was in a snappish mood. "Stop playing around." All this screaming was giving her a bigger migraine than she already had, and while Naruto's vampire blood was helping immensely, Sakura really needed to find and drink some more blood. Like, in the next hour preferably.

Pein sighed and muttered, "Fine," and then pulled out the witch's heart. "She couldn't tell me anything useful anyways."

Sakura narrowed her eyes and decided right then and there that she was just _done_ with that day. She stared at Pein, at his blood covered hands and the blood dripping off his chin and thought about licking it up. She was really, really hungry and this was not good _at all_.

Something must have shown on her face, because something in Pein's face shifted and there was a new gleam in his eyes, one that made Sakura a little more than apprehensive of. Her monster positively purred.

"So, sweetheart," Pein murmured, taking in her newly showered body and too large clothes that Naruto had obviously stolen from whoever lived in this house. "About those answers . . ."

She held up a hand to stop him. "No."

Pein raised a single brow. "No?"

"No," she said again. "I've just been tortured, you giant ass, and I'm going home. I have no idea how you found me—" She stopped, and then sneered at Pein's too innocent looking face. An innocent face covered in witches' blood and deep dimples that she wanted to lick and kiss and bite. The devil's face. "You know what? I do know how you found me—Karin's spell, right?"

She didn't really wait for an answer, just plowed on. "Of course you did. Because you're a paranoid ass. Made that spell effective to all but you. Genius, Pein. Just _genius_." She took a breath that she didn't need, but her monster really needed to be pushed down because all she could think about were those damnable _dimples_ and how easy it would be to take those few steps over to him and lick up the blood on his chin and—

"But I'll yell at you about that later. Because I'm hungry and I'm tired and I just want to go home, so that's what I'm going to do. If you want any answers from me you're going to have be fucking patient like a non-homicidal being and not be your useable pushy self and fucking _wait_."

And with that, Sakura had just enough energy to huff loudly, spin on her heels and drag Naruto out of that godforsaken basement of horror, Pein slightly gapping behind her. And she was _still_ without a pair of shoes.

* * *

Sakura held off Pein for all of two hours.

She and Naruto got back to his way too fancy cottage and Sakura practically lunged for one of the human housekeepers. She had just enough restraint not to tear out the woman's throat and not drink her dry. She compelled the woman to not remember a thing and badgered Naruto into giving the woman a nice raise.

Pein, of course, followed them. Sakura ate a waffle Naruto made for her, smothered in jelly and powdered sugar, and took a long, hot bath. She twisted her wet hair up into a clip and put on some of her own oversized clothes, not giving one damn about how she looked, threw the too large clothes Naruto had found her back at the house into the trash to be burned later, and came out into the living room to find Pein lounging in one of the overpriced leather chairs like he owned the place. Bastard.

Pein looked over at her and closed the book he had in his lap. He gestured to the two mugs on the coffee table. "Tea?"

Sakura nodded and walked over to the couch opposite him. She nursed the mug of tea, surprised that it was still warm.

She settled back into the couch and pulled her legs up. "Where's Naruto?"

"Out. Said something about if I touched you he'd tear me limb from limb and that he was going to go take care of some business." Pein raised a pierced brow. "I take it he knows what we're going to talk about and wanted to give you some space."

Sakura hummed, not all that surprised. "You know as well as I do that he doesn't make idle threats. You know he's practically as old as you are, and that he'd be able to hold his own—don't give me that look," she said, and narrowed her eyes at the pout he was giving her. "I saw the way you looked at him back there. You two know each other, if not personally then by reputation."

Pein shrugged, nonchalantly. "I'm just surprised he was willing to leave you alone with me. Doesn't seem like something a close friend like him would do, sweetheart."

Sakura rolled her eyes at the blatant distaste he had for Naruto. "Don't be jealous, Pein, it doesn't suit you."

He just smirked at her.

Sakura sipped her tea.

Pein propped a hand under his chin and looked at her for a moment. "I've given you space, Sakura," he said, slowly and carefully. "I've respected your need for isolation and then your sharing of your blonde haired vampire, love, but I'm going to have to demand some answers now."

Sakura felt her shackled rise. "I owe you _nothing_ , Pein," she snarled. "I have made no promises to you. What I do doesn't concern you."

"We both know damn well that everything you do concerns me," he said, grinning. His words were sharp and hit Sakura right in the gut.

"That," she said, "is not my problem." She made sure he was looking at her, then said softly, "I am not indebted to you, Pein. Never have been. You don't get to cage me like that."

Pein's eyelashes lowered as he gazed out beneath them for a long moment. "I've looked into you, Sakura," he finally said, folding his hands across lap elegantly. "And I cannot find one thing about you. Not one. Do you know how impossible that it, how good I am at unearthing information?"

Sakura stayed silent.

Pein went on. "Because I can assure you I'm the best at it. I have contacts everywhere. And not one of them can tell me anything but your name. I know your name and I have a vague idea of when you were turned. I know you were born in America and have contacts in some witch circles and same vampire circles, but for the most part you stay away from everyone." Pein ground his teeth together. "It's quite frustrating, sweetheart."

Sakura had to smile at that. "Why is any of this important?"

" _Because_ ," Pein gritted out, his hand fisting. "I do not think you understand how impossible it is that an original vampire such as me suddenly finds himself drawn to a baby vampire out of the blue. How suddenly I'm not so bored with life anymore and yet the _one_ thing in more than a thousand years I've cared about is suddenly unattainable.

"I could threaten you," Pein went on, almost innocently. Sakura narrowed her eyes at him, and he dimpled at her. "I could. But I know that you would just disappear on me, and I might not be able to find you one day. So I'm going to make you a few promises, Sakura."

She didn't trust how he said her name. It was like velvet, like chocolate melting on his tongue. She gripped her mug harder.

"One," —he held up one finger— "I will never lie to you. Two, I will never threaten you or threaten those you care about to get something from you. And, three, I will never, _ever_ cage you, Sakura."

He met her eyes, and she froze. The rings in his eyes were sharp and bright, and Sakura's thoughts went back to the blood splattered across his face and how it contrasted with the boyishness of his dimples.

"I do not pretend to understand why you fear that, sweetheart, but be sure in the promise that I will never do that to you." His eyes darkened. "I know a thing or two about cages."

"No, you'll just hunt me across the globe, won't you?" Sakura said, eyes demanding and chin held high.

Pein dimpled at her. "A man can only be pushed so far, love."

She sighed, though she had to bite back the smile that was tugging at her mouth. "What are your questions, Pein?" Her hand started to kneed at the couch underneath her. "I promise not to lie to you, but I'll only answer what I can."

"Alright," Pein said after a moment of looking at her, and she knew he watched her muscles tense and, for the first time since he met her, she knew she reminded him of a frightened animal, small and caged long after the torment passed.

"How were you turned, sweetheart?"

Sakura sighed and closed her eyes.

* * *

Author's Note: I'm sorry for taking so long to post this. I had serious writer's block and just couldn't get the words to write themselves. Blasted words, never doing what I want them to do. ;p

Just an FYI: I return to school this coming Monday, so I have no idea when I'll be able to update next. Sorry about that. I'll try to do the best I can. I'll never abandon a story, and if y'all think I'm taking too long, feel free to come yell at me. ;p

So Sakura is just kinda done with everyone, huh? The next chapter will pretty much all be about her past and Ino and everything, so y'all will finally get some answers. I haven't seen anyone in the comments get the backstory completely right, but some of you are kinda close. Kudos for that.

And can someone, please, for the love that is my sanity and OCD-ness, go comment on _Two Morons and A Mad House_ and get it up to 200 comments? It's been at 199 for a while now and for some reason it has made my OCD just go haywire. (Yes, I'm weird. I know this and accept it.)

Please tell me what y'all want to happen in coming chapters, what characters you may want added, what theories y'all have in mind for Sakura and Naruto and whatnot! I love reading your comments. They make my day. :D

Please read and **REVIEW**!

Until next time~


	6. Chapter 6

Standard disclaimer applies.

* * *

Sakura and Ino were twenty-one and out at a bar.

Their first bar, actually. Neither had ever done the whole fake ID teenage rebellion thing. Neither had really ever cared about getting drunk or hanging out with other people. Partly this was due to Ino and the whole witchy thing, and because sometimes—and only sometimes—Ino would lose control.

The thing about witch covens was that they both made a witch stronger and weaker. Stronger, because there was strength in numbers, and when those numbers were made up of witches whose specialty was in the same thing as yours, learning and control and feeling like you belonged could be addicting things. Powerful things. But they also made a witch weak, because magic was not an unlimited resource, and something always comes from something. When a group of powerful witches got together and were all trying to use that something, there became a depleted amount of that something.

The main reason witch covens were used was because 1) most witches were born into them and never really got a choice in the matter and 2) because covens gave a witch control. There was less of that something, of that magic taken when belonging to a coven, which meant there was less chance of a witch losing control when their emotions ran high, of accidentally shattering all the windows in a building because someone spilled coffee on your new blouse. Less chance of giving a rude person who cut you off in line a migraine so intense it could kill them. Less chance of fucking up and showing everyone that you were Other, that they should be weary of you. A lone witch needed to have perfect control at all times and be in control of their emotions. It was recommended that the lone witch not let themselves have any emotions.

Ino had a lot of emotions.

Sakura, on the other hand, just wasn't overly fond of people. There was the whole eye-contact thing and knowing the right things to say and being polite even in the face of an asshole. She had the unfortunate habit of breaking noses. She, too, had a lot of emotions.

Suffice it to say she and Ino got along grandly.

But Ino had coerced and begged and threatened and bargained with Sakura to go out with her to a bar when they both turned twenty-one. They were only a month apart, anyways, with Sakura being the younger one.

Sakura huffed and acted put out, but she knew from the beginning she was going to say yes. She wasn't all that good at saying no to Ino. Even though she _knew_ that potentially getting wasted was a bad idea, and potentially getting wasted in a place that may or may not have douche-y guys around that would undoubtedly grate on Sakura and Ino's last nerve was an even worse idea.

But they both wanted to try alcohol. They wanted to know the burn of shots down their throat and the sweetness of a margarita and everything else they knew nothing about. They looked up special drinks on their phones and compared notes on what sounded good.

It was such a mundane thing. Both hermits in their own rights, and all they wanted was to not even get drunk, but just get tipsy with each other.

(Sakura wondered sometimes if that was why she liked bars and alcohol so much. It didn't make a whole lot of sense, but it was the last place she and Ino shared a moment of happiness, so there was that.)

So they picked a place not too far off from their college campus and sat at the bar and talked up the bartender. She was nice girl with triple piercings in her ears and a dragon tattoo on her wrist. She told them what was good. They went at an off time, trying to avoid people who could potentially piss them off.

And it was fine. It was fun. She and Ino didn't get drunk; just a little tipsy. Sakura found that she had an unusually high tolerance and Ino had little to no tolerance. The bartender smiled at them.

Then Sakura had blacked out.

When she came to, she was chained to a wall and there were candles of all sizes peeking out in the darkness. She was so groggy, and she wondered if that was what a hangover was supposed to feel like. But no—she hadn't drunk enough for a hangover. And this felt . . . different. A bad kind of different, a shiver up your spine different.

It took her an embarrassing long time to get her thoughts in order, to mentally understand that she was in trouble. That was the worst part: She hadn't immediately had alarm bells going off in her head.

When the fear and gnawing pit of anxiety opened up in her gut finally formed, Sakura had noticed Ino, locked in a cage across the room. They were facing each other, which Sakura found as odd. Ino was still unconscious, not moving at all, and Sakura froze at the possibility of her no longer . . . _being_.

Sakura stayed there, chained to that godforsaken wall for what must have been at least a full day. Her stomach grumbled and rebelled against her. She had the distinct taste of hunger and thirst in her mouth, and her lips were bleeding they were so chapped.

But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was Ino never woke up during that time. Didn't even twitch.

Sakura had wounds around her wrists where she had tried to break free, and she had been worried about infection. She was pretty sure she didn't have any skin left there, and her hands were chained above her so that she couldn't even sit down, and if she lost strength in her legs her wrists and chains would take all her weight, further cutting into her, further feeling like her shoulders were being popped out.

She drifted in and out of consciousness. The candles never burned out.

Sometime around what must have been the second day, hanging there with no one having come in, Sakura decided she was going to die.

Maybe from the hunger and thirst, maybe from the hatred and desperation coiled in her gut, or maybe from whoever deigned to finally come for them. Did it really matter when the end result was the same?

Finally, _finally_ someone came into the dank and dark room. The pit opened up in Sakura's gut again.

Nothing was said by the person. She was wearing a cloak, like something out of freaking Harry Potter, and if Sakura wasn't so hungry and thirsty and felt like if she opened her mouth and tried to speak her tongue would shrivel up, she would probably have made a biting comment about the melodrama of all of this.

Honestly, though. The chains, the candles, the cloak? A bit of overkill if you asked Sakura.

Sakura had already deduced this was the doing of a witch coven. And when the cloaked witch raised a hand and snapped her fingers (also very dramatically, the drama-queen-witchy bitch), Ino shot up like a live wire.

Ino gasped and panted, eyes darting around frantically. Her gaze landed on the cloaked witch, and Sakura watched as all blood drained from her face.

And then Ino set her teeth and raised her chin. She was in a cage designed to make it impossible for her to stand up, but somehow Ino made it look like she was looking down her nose at the cloaked witch.

"Ino Yamanaka," the cloaked witch said, and Sakura was a little taken aback at how young and feminine her voice sounded. "Lovely, powerful child of the herb and protection witch coven."

"I don't belong to any coven," Ino said. Her voice sounded hoarse and scarred.

The cloaked witch hummed. "All witches belong to a coven, child. Whether you like it or not is up to you."

"And what is this, then?" Ino growled. "Kidnapping is illegal, you know. Even for witches with a bit too much hubris."

"Insolence is unattractive, child," the cloaked witch drawled.

Ino fluttered her lashes. "So is a Harry Potter cloak that's doing nothing for your complexion. And yet here you stand."

Sakura had choked on a laugh.

Ino swung her head around at the noise Sakura must have made, her eyes widening at her wrists chained to the wall. Ino narrowed her eyes, took Sakura in as Sakura grinned lazily at her, like this was all part of a Tuesday night for them.

Ino slowly, ever so slowly, turned her gaze back to the cloaked witch. "Oh, _honey_ ," she cooed in a sickening sweet voice, "you're really, really going to regret this."

And there was something in Ino's voice that was power. Sakura still believed that this was what the cloaked witch was after all along: Ino's power. Ino sometimes seemed like she had something ancient sleeping inside of her, so very powerful and ruthless.

Here was the thing about Ino Yamanaka: she kept secrets. Even from Sakura— _especially_ from Sakura. She didn't know everything about Ino, on why she didn't have a coven, why Sakura never heard about her family, why she drugged all of Sakura's tea. But Sakura respected her secrets, never pushed the subject. She trusted Ino.

The cloaked witch went rigid at Ino's words, then threw up a hand towards Sakura.

And Sakura screamed.

And screamed.

She blacked out eventually, but then woke up, and it would start again. Sometimes Sakura felt blood leak out of her nose, sometimes from her ears. She could never exactly pinpoint where the pain was, just that it was everywhere and nowhere, that it was so intense it didn't matter where it was located because it radiated throughout her body. Her wrists bleed from her thrashing and she felt her shoulders dislocate.

She screamed some more, until she was so hoarse all she could do was whimper. It felt like all her bones were breaking and then were mended back together, only for the same thing to happen again. And again. On and on and repeated forever after.

Sometimes Sakura could hear voices, and knew it was Ino yelling and cursing and threatening and the cloaked witch saying something again and again. But it was all muffled to Sakura, like someone had lowered the volume almost all the way down until everything was a mere whisper.

At some point Sakura was in the place between consciousness and sleep. She felt someone—not the cloaked witch—pushing liquid down her throat. Forcing Sakura to swallow, and Sakura was so thirsty and weak at that point she didn't even care what it was, what it tasted like. She couldn't taste anything over her own blood in her mouth, having bitten her tongue a long time ago.

It was blur after that. The pain still came. More liquid was poured down her throat. Ino screamed, but it wasn't the scream of physical pain; Sakura was glad for that.

Finally, what seemed after an eternity, Sakura gained consciousness. The cloaked witch was gone, and Ino was slumped in her cage, makeup smearing all over her eyes and tear streaks down her face. She looked worn and aged, her blonde ponytail coming loose and stray hairs matted to her face and neck. She was watching Sakura.

When Sakura cracked own her eyes, her lids feeling glued to her eyeballs, Ino croaked out, " _Sakura_ ," like her name was a prayer.

"I'm okay," Sakura said out of reflex. She said it the way someone would say it when an acquaintance would ask you how you were doing today, and even though you were tired and cranky and had cried the night before over family drama you knew you would never say any of that, would never explain it because it was too hard, and that wasn't what the person wanted to hear anyway, so you said the eternal _I'm okay, how are you?_ even though no one meant it. Even when it was so obvious Sakura was anything but okay. Ino had listened to her scream for god's sake.

Ino blinked at her for a moment. Then took a deep breath. "Sakura," she said again, slower. "I need to tell you something."

And then Ino told her. How she had been drugging her tea with protection herbs specially made just for Sakura. How this witch coven that kidnapped them both wanted to use Ino for her power. How Ino had known she was being watched and scouted, but only took the necessary action to protect Sakura. How the cloaked witch was torturing Sakura in the hope Ino would give in and join the coven.

"Joining a coven is for life," Ino explained, tears running down her face. "Once I'm in, I'm in. The coven could use me for whatever they wanted and I could never say no. It's no better than being a slave."

A part of Sakura felt choked on the knowledge that Ino was choosing herself over Sakura. That she wouldn't join a witch coven over saving Sakura. She remembered a conversation she and Ino once had, about choosing yourself over someone else, choosing your own happiness.

Her shoulder hurt.

Everything hurt, but her shoulder suddenly really, _really_ hurt. A fresh wave of pain. Sakura whimpered and closed her eyes.

"I'm so sorry, forehead," Ino whispered, though Sakura could somehow hear her. "I'm so sorry for what's about to happen, but I don't have a choice anymore. This is the only way that makes sense."

And then the cloaked witch came back, but this time with company. A few girls and boys who didn't look much older than Sakura and Ino. Some even appeared to be younger, and Sakura could see some children peeking out behind the adults.

"This, children," the cloaked witch said, "is Ino Yamanaka. She'll be joining our coven here soon, but is being a little . . . difficult about it all." She sighed, like a mother too exasperated at her own child for not putting on their winter coat in a snow storm.

And then the cloaked witchy bitch started in on one of those long and drawn out monologues worthy of Shakespeare's praise. Something about the usefulness of covens and how every witch had a responsibility to join a coven and so on and so forth. Sakura tuned it out, lost in her own thoughts and wondering what Ino meant. The witch coven looked nothing short of put out and tired, worn thin. Sakura idly took note of the long sleeves and long pants all the witches wore, and the bruised fingers and necks that peeked out.

At some point, the witch coven left, all but the cloaked witch and one younger boy who looked a few years younger than Sakura. He was holding a blue cooler, the kind families took on camping trips.

The cloaked witch nodded to the young boy, who looked terrified, and he scurried over to where Sakura was chained to the wall. Sakura tried to swallow, but her voice was all but gone from the screaming and it felt like sawdust had been poured down her trachea.

The boy didn't make eye contact with Sakura. He set the cooler down a few feet away from her and opened it. There were red baggies full of something, and Sakura watched in both horror and fascination as the boy cut a hole in one of them and carried it over to Sakura.

Sakura's eyes darted over to Ino, who watched with a resigned expression. Like this didn't surprise her at all, and she couldn't do anything to stop it. Sakura realized she was going to die then.

The boy grabbed hold of Sakura's chin and thrust her head back and poured the red liquid down her throat. Sakura couldn't do much to resist it and swallowed.

When he stepped back, the cloaked witch made sure Ino was watching and then slowly raised a hand and flicked her wrist. Sakura screamed.

Her spine caved in, her ribs fractured, her neck twisted at an inhuman angle. Her bones broke and mended back together, her appendix and spleen burst, and her blood rushed in her ears and down and out her mouth and eyes and nose.

And then she finally, _finally_ mercifully blacked out again.

When Sakura woke she felt . . . better. Not great, but her bones were mended and her spine felt put together again, all the vertebrae in place. Everything felt like it was in its right place, even her shoulders which she had been positive were dislocated. The only thing was that her throat _burned_. Not the burn of thirst, exactly, but the burn of the damned. The kind of burn after hot coals were thrust down your throat. The burn of fire.

Sakura couldn't— _wouldn't_ —open her mouth. It was too much. Too much pain and a kind of filthy desperation for _something_. She pulled at her chains desperately, wildly.

Ino just watched her with a blank expression, not saying a word.

Sakura was trying to lunge at her before her mind caught up with her. The chains tugged her back, and she left a dent in the wall where her body hit it. She felt frantic.

The cloaked witch and young boy were still in the room, watching Sakura with what could only be explained as hatred and distaste, like she was the gum stuck to the bottom of their new shoes.

The cloaked witch clucked her tongue and waved the young boy forward, who slowly edged forward and hesitated a foot away from Sakura. She tried not to pant and held her breath.

The boy took another step forward, just far enough to pour more of the red liquid down her throat and suddenly the thirst was abated. Slightly. It was still there, lurking underneath the surface, and after Sakura had drained that first baggie she pulled away with a gasp.

Her teeth ached, and after a moment Sakura licked at them, pausing when she found two to be rather sharp and pointed.

Then she had understood.

Oh, _god_.

The witches in the room watched her understand, and the cloaked witch made a kind of motherly, understanding sound.

"I know, dearie," she cooed. "It's just so distasteful, isn't it? But don't worry, as soon as your friend here agrees to our terms, we'll take care of you."

Sakura knew what taking care of her looked like.

She didn't look at the cloaked witch, though. Not once. She only had eyes for Ino, who looked so, so damn sad.

"Ino," Sakura croaked. She froze at her own voice, how mellow it sounded, how enticing. She squeezed her eyes shut.

And that was how Sakura spent the next day: having the smallest amount of cold blood poured down her throat—which no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't resist—and Ino just watching her. Never saying a word.

Finally, finally after another day when the cloaked witch finally came back, something happened.

"I appreciate your loyalty and dedication," the cloaked witch said, not sounding appreciative at all. "But when will your friend's suffering be enough, child? She's already lost to you. And being part of a coven is a wondrous, miraculous thing," she said reverently. "Just think of all that you'll learn. You'll finally be around others just like you."

Ino just blinked up at her, and Sakura whispered, " _Ino_ ," because she was Ino Yamanaka, queen of protection spells and maker of tea just the way Sakura liked it and best friend of Sakura Haruno. She was who Sakura thought of whenever she smelt roses or incents or freshly gathered herbs. And Sakura loved her, and knew that even if Ino threw her under the proverbial bus she would always continue to love her.

Something shifted in Ino's face then, when she looked at Sakura. Ino hadn't paid the cloaked witch one glance ever since Sakura had been turned. Had only eyes for Sakura.

Ino licked her lips and squared her shoulders, straightened her spine as much as she could in the small cage.

Then she started chanting.

Sakura would never know what language it was she spoke then. It was a mix of Latin and German and gibberish, and the cloaked witch looked at once confused and horrified.

And then Sakura's shoulder started burning again, and Sakura screamed some more.

But not for long. She felt something almost ticklish running it's fingers around her shoulder blade and along her collarbone. Ino's eyes went all black then, and she chanted louder as the cloaked witch tried to speak, but found that she couldn't.

Sakura could practically taste the magic in the air in the way Ino sometimes spoke of. A heavy, drowsy feeling. It was thick and heady and felt of everything Ino was to Sakura: love and protection and strength.

Ino's skin turned grey. A shiny, metallic kind of grey. Black veins shot out from her black eyes, and Sakura screamed at Ino to _Stop, please stop don't do this stop Ino what no don't please Ino stop._

Ino dropped on her face in the cage, and Sakura heard her skull bounce off the metal.

Sakura's chains shattered.

And there was nothing but rage and magic then. Nothing but Sakura's stolen blood rushing in her ears and the knowledge that she was going to destroy, to crush this witch coven until all that remained was ash and dust. _Ash to ash, dust to dust._

The next thing Sakura knew was the taste of fresh, warm blood in her mouth as she broke the neck of the cloaked witch and drank greedily, her blood staining her ridiculous cloak. Sakura saw the dragon tattoo on her wrist and the multiple piercings in her ears.

And then Sakura was out of that accursed room, snapping necks and drinking such warm, hot blood and tearing out hearts. She didn't pay attention to who was underneath her nails. Didn't pay attention to their age or gender or their pleads or give thought to the scars and burns and cuts adorning all of their bodies. Didn't give thought to how some of the witches greeted Sakura like an old friend, with a small smile and weariness and acceptance in their eyes.

Her monster, newly awakened, roared and broke and shattered. It didn't hesitate, didn't pause until everything around her was _ruined_.

Because she was Sakura Haruno, newly turned monster, and she would not be caged ever again.

When it was over, when Sakura followed and hunted the last of the witch coven, even the children hidden behind bookcases and in the cellar and wherever they had managed to run in so short a time, she made her way back to Ino.

Sakura tore the bars off of the cage, the magic around her taking care of the curses placed on the cage to keep Ino in. And she watched as Ino's body crumbled in her hands, having been made up of so much magic in life that she was nothing but ash and dust in death. Not even the marrow of her bones was left over, and Sakura understood then that Ino hadn't just given up her life for Sakura, but to also make sure that whatever power lurking in her body would never be used by a witch coven.

All magic came from something, and now Sakura was that something that had been given by Ino.

It was only much, much later when Sakura had made her way back to the house that smelt of roses and tea and herbs that Sakura found the cherry blossom tattooed on her shoulder, had again seen the result of Ino's sacrifice. Had felt the magic lurk there, just underneath her skin. She understood what Ino had meant by the protection herbs in her tea, how Ino had not just been placing protection after protection on her being, but was also giving her pieces of her magic in preparation of just this very event.

And after Sakura was showered and scrubbed clean of the blood and ruin, clean of the dust and ash that was once Ino's body, did Sakura set fire to the house smelling of goodness and protection and _Ino_. And with it, all Ino's herbs and spell books and whatever was left of her. If Ino had taken such lengths to make sure no witch coven could have what was left of her body, then Sakura could take care of the rest.

Then Sakura had made herself disappear.

* * *

Author's Note: Well, then.

You guys should be super proud of me for cranking this out so soon. I didn't even mean to. It just happened. Apparently my writer's block is gone, praise the Lord. I have your comments to thank for that.

So. The story ends next chapter. Yeah. The next chapter is even mostly written (be so proud of me). How soon I finish it and read over it depends on how much y'all comment and whatnot. Also on my schedule. Real Life does happen in the most annoying fashion.

Please read and **REVIEW**!


	7. Chapter 7

Standard disclaimer applies.

* * *

Pein sat still in the leather chair, hands folded across his lap, and you'd have to really know him to see the strain in his posture, in the way his breathing was almost nonexistent. The tension around his eyes and mouth.

Sakura, for her part, wanted to disappear into the couch.

She watched Pein, however, just because he was there, and he dominated the room. Dominated any room he was in, really. It was more than a little unsettling that this ancient, powerful creature in the room with her was watching her with a predator's gaze and with a clenched jaw.

Pein licked his lips and finally— _finally_ —said, "And the children? You killed them all?"

Sakura almost laughed at how similar his question was to Shikamaru's. "Yeah," she said, then took a deep breath. "Every last one."

"And they were . . . scarred?"

Sakura rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand. She felt tired and achy all over. If the torture session hadn't taken all her strength, the last hour of conversation with Pein had. Sakura had a feeling just being in a room with the man was an Olympic event, to not react to everything he said and did. "My guess is that the leader of the witch coven used the children for power like she wanted to do with Ino. And some spells require blood and bone," she said, then shrugged. "I didn't look all that hard at the children, honestly."

Pein nodded and rubbed at his mouth. "What about the witch coven today?"

"Unhappy coincidence," Sakura said nonchalantly. "I don't think they knew me—well, besides me being a vampire. Today's witch coven had nothing to do with how I was turned." She looked him in the eye, let some of her monster bleed through, and it was almost too easy to let go of that sliver of control. "I was thorough, Pein. I took care of all loose ends."

"You run," Pein said almost harshly, but not quite. "You don't stay in any one country for more than a few months."

"I _travel_ ," Sakura said, emphasizing the word, "because I enjoy it. It's not running, because there's not anything to run from." She sighed. "Ino always wanted to see the world, and I might as well do it for her."

"And . . . Naruto?" Pein asked, almost spitting out the word.

Sakura smiled something unfriendly and biting. "Naruto," she practically purred, just to spite him, "is a very good friend."

"How good?"

"He was the first vampire I befriended after I turned," Sakura continued, ignoring the way Pein's leather chair creaked with strain. "He taught me control, showed me how to live. Taught me how to hide, if I ever needed to."

"And you used it to run across the globe until he couldn't even find you," Pein said slowly.

She nodded. "Yeah. Something like that. I spent a few years with Naruto, learning the ropes, but I had good control and after a while I wanted something . . . new. And I wanted to be alone. So I left."

Pein narrowed his eyes. "You have more control over your bloodlust than a century old vampire, sweetheart."

Sakura huffed. "I don't know, okay? I was more than a little OCD when alive, and maybe that traveled over. Maybe Ino put a little something extra in my tea. Does it matter?"

Pein shrugged one shoulder. "I just find it interesting, love, that you don't leave a body count behind."

Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. "I don't enjoy killing," she said tightly.

He tilted his head at her, considering. "You hate yourself, don't you, sweetheart?" he purred. "All those children with scars and burns on their bodies and you just tore through them like they were _nothing_." He smiled, and it almost looked a little reverent.

 _Such obvious bait_ , Sakura thought, forcing her hand into a fist to prevent herself from tearing out Pein's eyes. She tilted her head up, looked down her nose at him in a way Ino would have been proud of. "I don't have to explain myself to _you_ ," she said, with the smallest of curve to her lips. "You know a bit about self-loathing, don't you, Pein?"

He tensed by the smallest margin and Sakura felt a moment of wicked delight. Because what would living as long as he had do to a person? Awful, awful things, Sakura bet.

But Pein just narrowed his eyes at her in the next instant and leaned further back in the chair, grinning over at her like she was the most fascinating thing in the world.

He hummed. "I know a great many things, sweetheart," he murmured. "I know about cages and chains, and how best to make someone scream for mercy. I know how to touch a woman in just the right places, how a brush against the inside of a knee or a kiss on the pulse point on a neck can elicit a response out of even the most stubborn of women." He smirked. "And yes, I do know a thing or two about self-loathing, and I'd be more than happy to further expound on any one of these topics."

Sakura thought, for the briefest of moments, about throwing her tea in his face.

Instead she said, her voice so very carefully neutral, "What do you want from me, Pein?" It came out hushed, like a secret or a threat. "You know my secrets now. Good for you. And there's no one for you to deign out retribution on for me, since I killed them all years ago, so that's out. And I think I've made it clear I won't be your kill or fuck buddy. I have no interest in being anything to you so you can just throw me away when it suits your fancy or you get tired. And you _promise_ —" she almost chokes on that word, so full of intent and broken things to Sakura. Ino promised a great many things to Sakura, and yet here she stood while Ino did not. "—not to cage me, but we both know that's a lie. That you're too manipulative for me to compete against, that there are ways for you to cage me with your words and promises."

She took a breath. "So _no_ , Pein, I don't care to ' _further expound_ ' on any of those topics for the sake of my sanity, thanks ever so much."

Pein watched her for a moment, so still in the chair. It was the kind of stillness that nothing alive could ever achieve.

Then a blink, and he was kneeling at her feet in front of her. Sakura sucked in a breath and flinched, but held herself still, refused to run. He could kill her so, so easily and she knew it.

He reached a hand up to her face, hovered over it. Something ancient lurked in his gaze, and for once, Sakura's monster was silent and still in the face of this man.

"Sweetheart. Love." He paused. " _Sakura_. Let me make myself very clear."

His hand trailed down her neck, her shoulder, her arm. Never touching her, though. Always leaving that breath of space between his hand and her body. Between his hand and her skin was the kind of space where sin and promises and seduction were formed.

"I have been alive for a very, very long time. I've met painters, philosophers, kings and queens, beauties beyond compare. I was around for the fall of Rome and the rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire, and not once have I ever found myself having more than a passing fancy of anyone.

"And I'm not even talking about love or sex or lust," he went on, his mouth curving with some amusement. "I've indulged more than a few times in all of those things. But I've never tried to have someone, not really. Those things were simply present at the time, and I admit, I was more than a little bored. Those feelings were fleeting for me, as you will find is an unfortunate side-effect of living beyond the years anyone has the right to have. Things become muted, emotions especially. So yes, I have committed many atrocities, and I will commit many more. I do not regret who I am, and I've no desire to change."

Sakura clenched her teeth, refused to shrink away from the iron in Pein's gaze.

"But never, not in the course of my very long life have I ever become so enamored with a baby vampire who knew more about spells and cages and torture than she had a right to, who killed a witch coven— _multiple_ witch covens—" he amended, and grinned widely, "and still somehow manages to draw moral lines. Who can kill so ruthlessly but only when needed, who can dance in the most provocative little dress imaginable and test what little restraint I have and not kill any of her meals. Who came at me with steel in her spine and gave a tongue-lashing to me so easily."

"You're being very dramatic," Sakura muttered, and Pein laughed.

"I'm trying to tell you, sweetheart, that I want you. I want you in every filthy way you'll let me have you, but I'll take what you give me," Pein said, smiling wickedly up at her, and then he did touch her. Just her hand, where his fingers brushed so very gently up to her wrist, where he flipped it over and lazily drew circles on her inner wrist, where the skin was thin and sensitive and her blue veins stood out.

He shrugged. "If it'll make you feel better, I'll call one of my witches to come here in the next hour and have her draw up a blood pact between us with my promises. I will not cage you, Sakura."

Something shattered in her at that. Blood pacts were forever. Pein would not be able—physically and mentally unable—to go back on his promise.

To offer it was . . . something else entirely.

Sakura swallowed and leaned forward to set her tea on the coffee table, already cold and long forgotten. His fingers on her wrist were entirely too distracting, and Sakura was a little surprised that her monster wasn't clawing at the surface as much. She felt apprehensive and calm, a kind of lucid awareness.

"I cannot promise you that you won't regret me," Pein said, bluntly. Her eyes flew to his. "I can't. But I can promise that I'll . . . try. I won't change, love, I'm far too old for that. But for you I'll make concessions."

"We'll fight," Sakura said. "I won't deal with vampire politics, Pein. I won't bow to you for the sake of appearance. I'm bossy, and I'll nag you. You might have a few centuries on me, but that means nothing to me besides you know a few more good vacations spots than I do."

Pein slowly shook his head and he smirked at her, dimples on full display. His hand traveled up her arm and Sakura pretended not to notice. "I would never ask you to bow to me. And any old vampire who would insinuate otherwise will find themselves quickly without a heart."

"Old dogs can learn new tricks."

He chuckled. "You may try."

His hand was traveling up further. "I won't promise you forever," Sakura said, narrowing her eyes and pointedly looking at his moving hand. Pein grinned and pulled it back to draw circles on her inner wrist again. "I can't even promise you now."

He shrugged. "What's a few years between the immortal?"

"Centuries," Sakura amended, almost like a dare.

"Even then," Pein said, then pointedly licked his lips as his gaze went straight to her mouth. "But I plan to make it very difficult for you to take that long."

"No secrets," Sakura said, like she was reading from a list. "I won't ask you to not protect me in your obsessive and frankly slightly creepy way, because I know you'd just do it anyways—" Pein gave her knowing look, far too pleased with himself. "—but I won't accept you keeping secrets from me. I want to know what you do concerning me." She paused. "And I want to know _before_ the fact. None of that telling me after you've had a hundred witches put random ass protection spells on me."

"And tracking spells," Pein said idly.

Sakura narrowed her eyes.

He shrugged. "You've already got one on you, thanks to your red-headed witch, sweetheart. That was all you." He grinned.

Sakura huffed. "You manipulated a perfectly good spell that was meant to prevent you—and _anyone_ —from tracking me and used it to your advantage, you complete—"

And then Pein was on her. His hand traveled up her arm to her waist, which quickly traveled between her back and the couch. His other hand cupped the space between her neck and head, cradling her. Pein slanted his mouth over hers in a whisper of a kiss, and because Sakura was tired and exhausted and maybe a little without restraint, she smirked and fisted her hands in his shirt, pulling him closer, until he had one knee up on the couch, hovering over her.

Her hands trembled slightly, because she had never been kissed like this and it took her a little aback. Because Pein was a monster that she would never fully understand, and she was okay with that against all reason. Because she understood that he would kill and maim and burn cities to the ground again, kill more people than she ever met, and accepting him didn't mean being okay with any of that, but understanding that he would listen to her, maybe concede for her.

All relationships had issues, and if theirs including killing and getting blood on the new one-of-a-kind Persian rug, then so be it.

There was clashing of teeth and mouths, and Sakura bit down on Pein's bottom lip at some point until she could taste blood. Pein growled low in his throat, and he gripped her harder. She licked at his dimples—those damnable dimples that could make angels sin—and let her fangs peek out. She glided them across his cheek and tilted her head back when his mouth went to her neck, kissing and licking her pulse point until her toes curled. When she felt his fangs glide across her neck, Sakura weaved her fingers in his red, red hair and pulled him back, smirking before she mashed her lips to his again, ignoring his half-hearted growl of protest.

When Sakura heard the sound of footsteps, she pushed Pein away and straightened her clothes, looking towards the door. Pein growled, annoyed, but sat back down in the leather chair with an indignant huff and a pout to his lips when Sakura gave him a pointed glare. She was a little too proud when she saw how red his lips looked, and how he licked them when he looked at her.

She also noticed how much her monster was practically purring.

Naruto walked through the door not even a moment later, whistling loudly and tunelessly. He looked between Sakura and Pein and narrowed his eyes for a split second before grinning widely at Sakura.

"So," he said cheerfully, "I take it we're not going to kill the bastard?"

Pein snorted.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Not right now, no. Where've you been?"

Naruto's face went hard, his eyes unreadable. "I took care of the witch coven."

"Ah." Sakura nodded, grateful. "Did you find anything out?"

"They just seemed like your normal crazy, vampire hating witch coven. The whole tree branch and your hair thing was the result of a few rumors they heard and apparently wanted to try it out," Naruto sighed, then shrugged one shoulder. "I contacted Shikamaru and gave him a heads up. He'll take care of the rest."

Sakura saw Pein turn to her out of the corner of her eye, raising one pierced eyebrow. "Shikamaru Nara?" Pein questioned. "The one on the witch counsel? _That_ Shikamaru?"

"He's an old acquaintance," Sakura simply said.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "Anyways," he said, looking between them. "he's taken care of it. The deaths won't be traced back to us."

"And what do you have over Shikamaru Nara, sweetheart?" Pein questioned, looking amused and . . . maybe a little impressed. "To have him owe you favors like this."

Sakura huffed. "You know, some of us don't have to hold anything over others to get them to do what we want," she said indignantly.

Pein's eyes narrowed knowingly. "Ah. An old witch friend. A friend of a friend, perhaps." He chuckled. "No wonder you're so well protected and can disappear without a trace, love."

"Not all witches are full of malice for vampires," Sakura whispered, glaring.

He smiled at her with fangs.

Naruto cleared this throat. "Yeah, _sooo_ . . ."

Sakura turned to Naruto and tapped her fingers on the couch. "How do you feel about Amsterdam?"

He grinned back at her, his eyes flicking over to Pein and back to her, a bit of his own monster peeking out at her, so very amused. "I _love_ Amsterdam."

When Naruto walked out of the room, whistling loudly and off tune, Pein flashed over to stand in front of Sakura, holding out a hand to help her up. Sakura ignored it and stayed seated.

Pein chuckled. "Well, then. If all the problems have been sorted out, I think I'll take my leave. For now." Sakura pointedly ignored that.

Sakura stood up, made a point of looking over her manicure. There was a chip on her right pointer finger and she just _knew_ it was going to drive her crazy until it was fixed. She thought about how she was a little tired of red nails, and maybe a nice light blue would be cute?

Pein leaned down and Sakura froze. His breath was warm on her ear and cheek, and he whispered, "Just remember what I said, sweetheart. I surely won't be forgetting this conversation anytime soon." He looked towards the door Naruto had just walked out of. "And I'm a _much_ better tourist guide. I do, in fact, know more vacation spots than your blonde vampire ever would."

"Being old as dirt would do that," Sakura quipped.

He breathed a whisper of a kiss over her cheek, in that dangerous spot on the corner of her lips, his lip piercing cool against her skin. Not enough, never enough. "I'll be waiting when you change your mind."

And then he was gone, and Sakura thought about how, one day, maybe in a decade, maybe in a couple centuries, she would take Pein up on his offer. But she'd make him wait a bit, make him prove himself with more than a few heated touches and pretty words.

But first she _really_ needed to do something about her nails. And her hair.

Fucking witches.

* * *

Author's Note **:** BE SO PROUD OF ME.

I did it. I effing did it. I finished three chapters in under a week, and I hope y'all are happy that I somehow (really, it was feat of God) got all this done before I start school tomorrow.

So. I have an idea. Of sorts.

I don't really want to start another long story with multiple chapters, just because I know I'll be super busy starting tomorrow. However, I don't want to stop writing. So here's my idea: **I'll start taking drabble prompts**. Sakura centric prompts, of course.

I see two ways to do this: anyone can private message me here with a drabble prompt that I hope to get to at some point. Or, y'all can go find my newly made Tumblr page thingy and message me there with the prompt, since that seems to be where most authors get their prompts from. My Tumblr is under OfPaintAndOil as well. Please do not post the prompt in the comments here.

Two main rules, however, if I do this: I'm not doing any smut (nothing M rated) and I get to say no to any prompt I don't wanna write.

I'm thinking I'll just publish the prompt and my 1,000-ish word story here and each chapter will be from a new prompt. I make no promises to how soon I finish each prompt, but I'm thinking this might be a fun thing to try while I'm in school and can't undergo a huge multi-chapter story. (Also, I should also say I'm very, very new to the whole Tumblr thing, so I might need to figure that out and everything.)

This might work, it might not. I might not even get any prompts and this is me wasting breath. Who knows.

I hope you all enjoyed vampire!Sakura and her original-vampire-stalker!Pein. It was so much fun to write.

Please **REVIEW**!


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